Thomas Sandy Herbert was born in Washington, D.C. in 1824.¹ By 1857, he worked as lamplighter for public buildings in the city, making $720 annually; he continued in this role until 1869.² Beginning in 1871, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert worked as the fireman or furnace keeper in the White House, keeping the house heated.³ Herbert then continued to work in the White House for Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, and Grover Cleveland. During this time, he earned $864.⁴Herbert’s obituary stated that he was an expert on the weather, and many presidents consulted him on the topic.(5) Thomas married Margaret Lucas in 1854.⁶The 1880 census lists Herbert as living with his wife, five daughters, and two sons.⁷ He was known to his friends as “Old Sandy.”⁸ He worked at the White House until just before his death on August 16, 1886.⁹ Thomas Herbert is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.¹⁰

“Thomas S. Herbert,” District of Columbia, Deaths and Burials, 1840-1964, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/367878:60260 
Department of State, Register of Officers and Agents, Civil Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States (Washington, DC: A.O.P. Nicholson, Public Printer, 1857): 98, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t6737jg25&view=1up&seq=120&q1=Herbert; Herbert’s obituary in The Evening Star says he began working in the White House during the Buchanan administration, and he would have started as a lamplighter during that time. However, his obituary in The Critic states that he began heating the presidential mansion in Fillmore’s time. There is no other evidence of that being the case. “Death of Sandy Herbert,” The Evening Star, August 21, 1886, https://www.newspapers.com/image/146218141/?terms="Sandy Herbert"&match=1; “Men and Things about Town,” The Critic, August 21, 1886, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/46427483
Department of Interior, Register of Officers and Agents, Civil Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1873): 227
Department of Interior, Official Register of the United States Containing all Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1879):15; Department of Interior, Official Register of the United States Containing all Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1883): 19 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Register_of_Officers_and_Agents_Civil_Mi/yY0vAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="T.S..+Herbert"+and+President&pg=PA19&printsec=frontcover
“Men and Things about Town,” The Critic, August 21, 1886, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/46427483; “Death of Sandy Herbert,” The Evening Star, August 21, 1886, https://www.newspapers.com/image/146218141/?terms="Sandy Herbert"&match=1
“Thomas Herbert and Margaret Lucas,” Washington, D.C., U.S., Marriage Records, 1810-1953, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/205183:61404
“Thomas S. Herbert,” 1880 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/35431418:6742
“Men and Things about Town,” The Critic, August 21, 1886, Newspapers.com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/46427483
Ibid.
“Thomas S. Herbert,” Find a Grave, accessed March 20, 2023, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/94334693/thomas-s.-herbert.

Birthplace

Washington, D.C., USA

Oak Hill Cemetery