Jacob B. Turner
- Positions
- Usher
- Messenger
- Doorkeeper
- Years in President's House
- 1890 – 1893
- 1897 – 1901
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
Jacob B. Turner was born in Indiana in June 1846.1 During the Civil War, Turner served in the 134th Indiana Infantry Regiment.2 After the war, he managed a saloon in Muncie, Indiana.3
In October 1890, newspapers announced that Turner had been appointed to the role of usher at the White House; President Benjamin Harrison hired many workers from his home state of Indiana.4 Turner is also sometimes called a messenger or doorkeeper, suggesting that he managed the flow of visitors, delivered messages, and maintained order and security at the Executive Mansion. In 1892, he was elevated to chief doorkeeper during the illness of Edson Densmore, and later replaced him after Densmore passed away later that year.5 In November of that year, Turner was charged with bribing voters in Muncie, Indiana but the outcome of this case is unclear; despite these charges, he appears to retain his position through the rest of Harrison’s term.6
After moving into the White House in 1893, President Grover Cleveland dismissed Turner “upon political grounds” but in November 1897, President William McKinley reinstated him to the role of chief doorkeeper.7 Turner fell ill in the fall of 1900 and traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas to recover, but he passed away there on February 15, 1901. He was buried at Beech Grove Cemetery in Muncie, Indiana with Masonic honors, as he was a member of his local lodge.8
- Jacob Turner in the 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 161; Page: 10; Enumeration District: 0080, Ancestry.com.
- Jacob Turner in the Web: Indiana, U.S., Civil War Soldier Database Index, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com. Web: Indiana, U.S., Civil War Soldier Database Index, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015; Jacob Turner in the U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; U.s., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; NAI Title: General Index to Civil War and Later Pension Files, Ca. 1949-Ca. 1949; NAI Number: 563268; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773-2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Number: T288; Roll: 481.
- Jacob Turner in the 1870 United States Federal Census, Year: 1870; Census Place: Muncie, Delaware, Indiana; Roll: M593_310; Page: 507B, Ancestry.com; Jacob B. Turner in the 1880 United States Federal Census, Year: 1880; Census Place: Muncie, Delaware, Indiana; Roll: 274; Page: 405c; Enumeration District: 184, Ancestry.com.
- “White House Notes,” Los Angeles Herald, October 4, 1890, pg. 1, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025968/1890-10-04/ed-1/seq-1/.
- Official Register of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1891), 21; “White House Workers,” Washington Post, January 11, 1891, pg. 9; “A Wrong Righted,” Muncie Evening Press (Indiana), June 3, 1897, pg. 1; “Jake is In It,” The Muncie Morning News (Muncie, Indiana), May 9, 1892, pg. 1.
- “Bribed Voters in Muncia, Indiana,” The World (New York), November 19. 1892, pg. 3; “Money for Votes,” St. Paul Daily Globe (Minnesota), November 19, 1892, pg. 4, Chronicling America, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn90059522/1892-11-19/ed-1/.
- “Jacob B. Turner,” The Muncie Morning News (Indiana), April 6, 1893, pg. 2; “Jacob B. Turner Reinstated as Chief Usher at the White House,” The Indianapolis Journal, November 23, 1897, pg. 2; “Usher at the White House,” Baltimore Sun, November 23, 1897, pg. 2.
- “Jacob B. Turner,” FindaGrave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133287356/jacob-b.-turner; “Jacob Turner Coming Home,” Muncie Evening Press, October 30, 1900, pg. 5; “Going Away Monday,” Evening Star, October 20, 1900, pg. 2; “Jacob Turner’s Funeral,” The Star Press, February 17, 1901, pg. 3.
- Birthplace
- Indiana, USA
- Beech Grove Cemetery