John M. Jester
- Positions
- Doorkeeper
- Usher
- Years in President's House
- 1885 – 1889
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- Grover Cleveland First Term
- Biography
John Milton Jester was born around 1847 in Buffalo, New York.1 He served in a New York regiment during the Civil War and married a woman named Emily. Jester had one son, also named John Milton Jester.2
Jester was a personal friend of President Grover Cleveland. When Cleveland became president in 1885, Jester moved to Washington and worked as a doorkeeper at the White House, earning $1,200 per year.3 In this role, he coordinated the president’s schedule, managed access to the White House, and helped maintain order. Following Cleveland’s first term, Jester departed the White House and went to work for the United States Postal Service in the dead letter office, the place where undeliverable mail goes. He was replaced by Edward M. White.4
Jester continued to work for the Postal Service until his death on August 8, 1912. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.5- “John M. Jester,” Washington Times Herald, August 11, 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/image/79958150/?match=1&terms="John M. Jester".
- “U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934 for John M Jester,” Ancestry, accessed June 15, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/4654/images/32959_032907-00685?ssrc=&queryId=2d38e912-eb4f-48f7-b284-639523a242e4&usePUB=true&pId=1169702; “John M. Jester,” The Washington Times Herald, August 11, 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/image/79958150/?match=1&terms="John M. Jester".
- Official Register of the United States, 1885, (Government Printing Office, 1885), 19, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c087112112&seq=33&q1=Jester; Official Register of the United States, 1887, (Government Printing Office, 1887), 21, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c109287304&seq=33&q1=Jester.
- This newspaper misstates his name as William Jester. “The President’s Return to Deer Park,” The Baltimore Sun, July 20, 1889, https://www.newspapers.com/image/372452572/?match=2&terms="Edward M. White" Doorkeeper; Official Register of the United States, 1889, (Government Printing Office, 1889), 560, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c109287289&seq=5&q1=Jester.
- “John M. Jester Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874-1931,” Ancestry, accessed June 17, 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62876/records/316493?tid=&pid=&queryId=f011d9be-68e5-4455-a5aa-0f70c3265900&usePUBJs=true; “John M. Jester,” The Washington Times Herald, August 11, 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/image/79958150/?match=1&terms=John M. Jester.
- Birthplace
- Buffalo, New York, USA
- Arlington National Cemetery