Thomas Cross

Little is known about Thomas Cross outside of his employment as a doorkeeper and servant at the White House under President Abraham Lincoln.¹ In his letters, Presidential Secretary John G. Nicolay described Cross as a servant and, in March 1865, wrote to Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana to request a travel pass for Cross’s nephew to visit Savannah, Georgia.² After President Lincoln’s death, Mary Lincoln recommended Cross for employment, describing him as “an honest, industrious man and always highly esteemed by my beloved husband.”³ Historian Justin G. Turner noted that Cross likely served as a doorkeeper and companion to young Tad Lincoln, accompanying the family to Chicago after they left the White House.⁴ 

Little else is known about Cross’s life. Because two White House workers during the Lincoln era shared the same name and worked concurrently, contemporary and later sources sometimes conflate their records.⁵