Charles Henry Lemos was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia around 1847.¹ According to an 1882 newspaper article, Charles and his brother Beverly Lemos were both “sold into slavery down in Georgia” as children and separated from their family; further details regarding his enslavement and subsequent freedom are unclear.² Lemos later worked as a barber in Washington, D.C. and often shaved Vice President Andrew Johnson. According to a newspaper article about his career, “After Lincoln’s assassination, Johnson had him come to the White House every other day.”³This earned him an appointment as a clerk in the Treasury Department, but he also served as the White House barber on the side.⁴ In 1881, President James A. Garfield delivered diplomas to graduates of Howard University’s law school; he reported: “One of them is my barber,” referring to Lemos.⁵ Charles’ brother, Beverly, also worked on staff as a waiter. In 1882, newspapers reported that the Lemos brothers’ long-estranged father (who is not named in these articles) was reunited with his sons at work, where the three “had a long talk… in the ante-room of the White House.”⁶Charles H. Lemos shaved every president from Andrew Johnson through William McKinley, and The New York Times reported “President McKinley who…likes to do his own shaving, is said to have frequently patronized Lemos for the sake of the traditions of the Executive Mansion.”⁷Lemos continued in this informal White House position until his passing on June 20, 1899. He was buried at Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Burials there were later disinterred during Metro construction and moved to National Harmony Memorial Park Cemetery in Maryland.⁸

Charles H Lemos in the U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; ARC Identifier: 566522; Record Group Number: 101; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006; Charles Henry Lemos in the Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874-1931, District of Columbia Public Library; Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C. Deaths, 1874-1945, Ancestry.com.
“Where Dem Lemos Boys Are,” New York Times, August 6, 1882, pg. 9.
“The White House Barber,” Oglethorpe Echo (Crawford, GA), August 8, 1884, pg. 4, https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn85027057/1884-08-08/ed-1/seq-4/.
Horace Porter to George S. Boutwell, March 16, 1872 in "The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 23: February 1-December 31, 1872" (2000). Volumes of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/usg-volumes/23; “Where Dem Lemos Boys Are,” New York Times, August 6, 1882, pg. 9; “The White House Barber,” Times Union (New York), July 6, 1899, pg. 11.
Theodore Clarke Smith, The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield Vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1925), 1174.
“Where Dem Lemos Boys Are,” New York Times, August 6, 1882, pg. 9; “Old Lemos,” Cleveland Leader (Ohio), August 4, 1882, pg. 4; “A Happy Reunion,” National Republican, August 2, 1882, pg. 3.
Untitled, New York Times, June 25, 1899, pg. 13.
Charles H Lemos in the U.S., Freedman's Bank Records, 1865-1874, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; Registers of Signatures of Depositors in Branches of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, 1865-1874; ARC Identifier: 566522; Record Group Number: 101; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-2006; Charles Henry Lemos in the Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874-1931, District of Columbia Public Library; Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C. Deaths, 1874-1945, Ancestry.com; “Charles Henry Lemos,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/280808159/charles_henry-lemos.

Birthplace

Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA

National Harmony Memorial Park (formerly Columbian Harmony Payne Cemetery)

Related Worker: Beverly R. Lemos
Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1872 – 1890