Augustus M. Sprague
- Position
- Doorkeeper
- Years in President's House
- 1889 – 1893
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
August M. Sprague was born around 1832 in New York.1 Sprague served in the Union Army in the 2nd Michigan Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.2 After the war, he worked for the Metropolitan Police Force in D.C., and in 1889, he was appointed to serve as a doorkeeper at the Benjamin Harrison White House.3 Doorkeepers coordinated the president’s schedule, managed access to the White House and the Executive Offices, maintained order, and ushered visitors into the Executive Mansion.4
It appears that Sprague remained on staff through the end of the Harrison administration in 1893 before transferring to the Government Printing Office. Outside of work, Sprague was active in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) veterans groups, the Odd Fellows fraternal organization, and the Knights of Pythias secret society. He died on July 13, 1894, and was buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.5
- Augustus M. Sprague 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.
- Augustus M Sprague in the U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962, Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962. Interment Control Forms, A1 2110-B. NAID: 5833879. Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985. The National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, Ancestry.com.
- “A New Doorkeeper,” Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 20, 1889, pg. 5; “Changes at the White House,” The Evening World (New York), May 21, 1889, pg. 4.
- Matthew Costello, “The White House Chief Usher,” White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-white-house-chief-usher.
- Untitled, Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), February 5, 1894, pg. 7; “Death of A. M. Sprague,” Washington Post, July 14, 1894, pg. 5; Augustus M Sprague in the U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962, Interment Control Forms, 1928–1962. Interment Control Forms, A1 2110-B. NAID: 5833879. Record Group 92, Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774–1985. The National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, Ancestry.com.
- Birthplace
- New York, USA
- Odd Fellows Cemetery