White House Historical Association

John Wells

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"John Wells," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/373.
Position
Coachman
Years in President's House
circa 1864 – 1865
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
Black or African American
Presidency
Abraham Lincoln
Biography

John R. Wells was born enslaved in 1833 in Prince George's County, Maryland. After the Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved workers in the country, John and his wife, Rosetta, moved to Washington, D.C., where she became a seamstress for the Lincolns.1 John owned a team of coachmen and horses and would be for hire for different jobs around the city, and sometimes assisted First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln to the train station.2 He reflected on that time later in life, stating that he could remember President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination “as if it was yesterday.”3 

John died on April 3, 1934, at age 101.4 He was buried at Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery in Washington, D.C.5 In 1960, the cemetery and all remains were relocated to Hyattsville, Maryland, and renamed National Harmony Memorial Park.6

  1. "Former Slave Dies Here at Age of 101; Recalled Lincoln," Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 5, 1934, pg. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/618966211/?match=1&terms=John R. Wells.
  2. John E. Washington, They Knew Lincoln (New York: Dutton, 1942), [77-78].
  3. "Former Slave Dies Here at Age of 101; Recalled Lincoln," Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 5, 1934, pg. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/618966211/?match=1&terms=John R. Wells.
  4. "Former Slave Dies Here at Age of 101; Recalled Lincoln," Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 5, 1934, pg. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/618966211/?match=1&terms=John R. Wells.
  5. "Former Slave Dies Here at Age of 101; Recalled Lincoln," Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), April 5, 1934, pg. 9, https://www.newspapers.com/image/618966211/?match=1&terms=John R. Wells.
  6. "Columbian Harmony and Payne's Cemetery Ledgers Collection, 1901–1959," Collection 066, The People's Archive, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. https://thepeoplesarchive.dclibrary.org/repositories/2/resources/1005.
Birthplace
Prince George's County, Maryland, USA
National Harmony Memorial Park (formerly Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery)