Daniel Spriggs
Cite this Page
"Daniel Spriggs," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/463.
- Positions
- Valet
- Waiter
- Years in President's House
- 1881 – 1889
- 1893 – 1897
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Biography
- Daniel Spriggs was born in Maryland in 1834.1 Little is known about his early life, but in 1881, he joined the White House staff as valet to President James Garfield. In this role, he dressed, shaved, and traveled with the president, seeing to his daily needs. After Garfield was shot, Spriggs was “continually at the bedside of the president” and present at his deathbed on September 19, 1881.2 Incoming President Chester A. Arthur retained Daniel Spriggs’ valet services (although his title was officially “laborer”), assigning him to work for his son, Chester Arthur II.3 Spriggs worked as a servant and waiter, rather than valet, in subsequent administrations. An 1889 article in The Indianapolis Journal noted that “Dan,” alongside other African-American servants, “help[ed] to clean up the house, and all of them, together with several other men servants, do the waiting on the table at State dinners.”4 Outside of work, he was an officer in the Executive Mansion Social Club, a group composed of Black men who worked at the White House.5 According to his obituary, Spriggs left the White House during President Benjamin Harrison’s tenure (1889-1893), but returned to work for Grover Cleveland in 1893; he apparently stayed there until transferring to the Government Printing Office in 1897.6 Daniel Spriggs died on October 18, 1897, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.7 Thank you to the James A. Garfield National Historic Site for providing research assistance with this biography.
- “Daniel Spriggs,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181928579/daniel-spriggs; Daniel Spriggs in the District of Columbia, U.S., Select Deaths and Burials Index, 1769-1960, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, U.S., Select Deaths and Burials Index, 1769-1960 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
- Multiple men named Daniel Spriggs worked in D.C. at the time; it is unclear how Garfield came to know Spriggs. “An Old White House Servant,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), October 18, 1897, pg. 6; “The Martyr Laid at Rest,” The New York Times, September 27, 1881, pg. 1; “The Autopsy: Around the Death-bed,” in General Garfield: From the Log Cabin to the White House Ed. J. B. McClure (Chicago: Rhodes and McClure, 1881), 191.
- “Arthur’s Regal Retinue,” The Glen Rock Item (Glen Rock, PA), November 28, 1884, pg. 1.
- “The White House Service,” The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, Indiana), February 26, 1889, pg. 2, Chronicling America, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn82015679/1889-02-26/ed-1/?sp=2&r=0.364,0.56,0.425,0.175,0.
- “A Handsome Present,” The Washington Bee (Washington, D.C.), January 12, 1884, pg. 3.
- “An Old White House Servant,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), October 18, 1897, pg. 6; “Garfield’s Old Servant Dead,” Washington Post, October 19, 1897, pg. 7.
- Ibid; “Daniel Spriggs,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181928579/daniel-spriggs; Daniel Spriggs in the District of Columbia, U.S., Select Deaths and Burials Index, 1769-1960, Ancestry.com. District of Columbia, U.S., Select Deaths and Burials Index, 1769-1960 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
- Birthplace
- Maryland, USA
- Mount Olivet Cemetery
- Related Workers
- Mary WhiteHousekeeping and Laundry, 1881 – circa 1887
- Ella WhiteHousekeeping and Laundry, 1881 – circa 1886
- Edwin L. ThomasValets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, circa 1883 – 1884
- Related Association Content
- https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-working-white-house-witness-to-history