Jeremiah Smith

Jeremiah “Jerry” Smith was born in Maryland, circa 1839.¹ During the Civil War, Smith served in the Union Army, and sometime around 1873, he joined President Ulysses S. Grant’s White House staff.² He remained there through eight presidencies as a laborer. However, Smith is better described as a jack-of-all-trades, because he is sometimes referred to as a valet, footman, custodian, and official duster, among other roles. Jerry Smith became a well-known staple for visitors at the White House– as the York Daily Record once put it: “If anybody tried to discharge him, he simply wouldn’t be discharged. Luckily, nobody will try it.”³ 

Smith was known for spinning ghost stories to the press, and his sightings of presidents Lincoln, Grant, and McKinley are still an important part of White House lore today.⁴ Another of Smith’s White House duties was raising and lowering the flag atop the White House each day; however, due to failing eyesight, he accidentally hoisted the flag upside-down in 1903. The incident led to his retirement later that year, after approximately thirty years at the White House.⁵ 

Jerry Smith died on July 25, 1904. Many White House employees attended his funeral, and President Theodore Roosevelt sent a floral depiction of the White House to decorate Jerry’s casket. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington, D.C.⁶