Henry Pinckney

Henry Pinckney was born in Charleston, South Carolina, around 1857.¹ As a young man, he worked as a carpenter in Charleston.² By 1890, he had moved north to Albany, New York with one source claiming he worked at the State Capitol.³ Between 1892 and 1894, he began working at the New York State Executive Mansion, home of the New York governor.⁴ Government records identify Pickney’s job title as “porter,” but he seems to have performed a wide variety of jobs at the governor’s mansion and the grounds of the house, including as the governor’s messenger.⁵ While working at the Executive Mansion, Pinckney met Theodore Roosevelt, who served as governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. When Roosevelt became president in 1901, he hired Pinckney to work at the White House.⁶ 

Pinckney’s initial job at the White House was valet, or personal attendant to the president. But in October 1901 he was promoted to steward when the current steward, William T. Sinclair, was fired by President Roosevelt.⁷ Pinckney was the last person to officially hold the position of steward at the White House, with that title disappearing from government books in 1910.⁸ Traditionally, stewards were one of the highest ranked positions with the household with responsibility for managing the White House domestic staff, planning and overseeing social events, and purchasing supplies for the first family. However, by the turn of the twentieth century, chief ushers and housekeepers began taking on more responsibility for managing the work force, and stewards’ duties became more limited to purchasing supplies, overseeing some household accounts, and performing general tasks for the president and first family.⁹ A newspaper article claimed that Pinckney “acted as general factotum for the Roosevelts,” meaning he performed a wide variety of tasks.¹⁰ These included conducting inventories of White House food and supplies and purchasing needed items.¹¹ A newspaper article from 1905 stated that “Pinckney goes to market every day, driving a Dayton wagon, in which he brings home many of his purchases. Fruits and vegetables he buys fresh every day and meats three times a week.”¹² White House Usher Irwin “Ike” Hoover stated in his memoir that Pinckney’s “principal occupations were seeing that the Roosevelt children got to and from school and doing a little personal messenger work.”¹³ While working for President Roosevelt and the first family, Pinckney lived in the basement of the White House.¹⁴ His son, Roswell, became close friends with the Roosevelts’ youngest son Quentin.¹⁵

When Roosevelt’s tenure as president ended in 1909 and William Howard Taft became president, Pinckney stayed at the White House but his job shifted to that of messenger. He was working in that capacity when he passed away on April 5, 1911.¹⁶ Pinckney was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery in New York.¹⁷