Andrew C. Smith was born about 1837 in Maryland.¹ Little is known of his early life, but by 1860, he was still living in Maryland and working as a mason.² Soon after, he joined the Metropolitan Police Force in Washington, D.C. As part of his duties, he was detailed to the White House; White House Doorman Thomas Pendel wrote in his memoir that “on November 3, 1864… Andrew Smith and myself were called to report at the First Precinct… and then were told where we were to go, which was to the President’s Mansion.” They remained there after that day, and Smith worked mainly as a doorkeeper and guard at the White House.³ According to the memoirs of Civil War soldier Thomas Donaldson, in 1864, Smith accompanied President Abraham Lincoln to Fort Monroe, a Union base in Confederate territory. Donaldson also claimed that Smith accompanied Lincoln’s body on its journey back to Illinois after his assassination.⁴ Smith continued to work at the White House at least until September 1867.⁵ He may have remained on staff as late as 1881, according to the news report of his death, though census records from 1870 and 1880 list him working in other occupations.⁶ In July of that year, he was working at the Government Printing Office as a clerk.⁷ Andrew Smith died on August 4, 1883, and was buried in Baltimore, Maryland.⁸

Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874–1931, entry for Andrew C. Smith, certificate no. 38430, database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025 https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62876/records/274917?tid=&pid=&queryId=182dff59-78a8-449b-9886-56c417af1d3d&_phsrc=fQN166&_phstart=successSource.
“1860 United States Federal Census,” entry for Andrew C. Smith, Baltimore Ward 7, Baltimore, Maryland; database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7667/records/53539377?tid=&pid=&queryId=182dff59-78a8-449b-9886-56c417af1d3d&_phsrc=fQN166&_phstart=successSource.
Thomas F. Pendel, Thirty-Six Years in the White House (Washington, D.C.: The Neale Company, 1902), 11, https://archive.org/details/thirtysixyearsin00pend/page/n17/mode/2up.
The "Memoirs" of Thomas Donaldson 1881-1893, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library and Museum, https://www.rbhayes.org/research/the-memoirs-of-thomas-donaldson-1881-1893/.
Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the… September 30, 1865, 144, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Register_of_Officers_and_Agents_Civil_Mi/RxUZAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq="Andrew C. Smith"; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the… September 30, 1867, 187, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Register_of_Officers_and_Agents_Civil_Mi/Boc0AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq="Andrew C. Smith".
According to the Evening Star, Smith may have remained on staff until about 1881. An article on his death in 1883 noted that he had been transferred from the White House “at the beginning of the present administration,” referring to President Chester A. Arthur, who entered office in 1881. However, census records list him as a railroad repairman in 1870 and as a laborer in 1880. This evidence does not definitively confirm whether he was employed at the White House during this period, and no further documentation has been located. See… “1870 United States Federal Census,” entry for Andrew Smith, Washington County, Maryland; database with images, Ancestry accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7163/records/23703063?tid=&pid=&queryId=182dff59-78a8-449b-9886-56c417af1d3d&_phsrc=fQN166&_phstart=successSource; “1880 United States Federal Census,” entry for Andrew Smith, Pleasant Valley, Washington County, Maryland; database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6742/records/35707966?tid=&pid=&queryId=182dff59-78a8-449b-9886-56c417af1d3d&_phsrc=fQN166&_phstart=successSource; “Blew His Brains Out,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 4, 1883, 5, https://www.newspapers.com/image/145385413/?match=1&terms="Andrew C Smith".
Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the… July 1, 1881, 661, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Official_Register_of_the_United_States/PLBDAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq="Andrew Smith".
In reporting his death, the Evening Star stated that Smith died by suicide following his transfer from the White House and the subsequent loss of his job; See Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874–1931, entry for Andrew C. Smith, certificate no. 38430, database with images, Ancestry, accessed September 12, 2025 https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62876/records/274917?tid=&pid=&queryId=182dff59-78a8-449b-9886-56c417af1d3d&_phsrc=fQN166&_phstart=successSource; “Blew His Brains Out,” Evening Star, Washington, D.C., August 4, 1883, 5, https://www.newspapers.com/image/145385413/?match=1&terms="Andrew C Smith".

Birthplace

Maryland, USA

Baltimore, Maryland

Related Worker: Thomas F. Pendel
Ushers, Stewards, and Doorkeepers, 1864 – 1909

Related Association Content: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-timelines/guarding-the-white-house