Robert C. Mitchell
Cite this Page
"Robert C. Mitchell," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/530.
- Positions
- Doorkeeper
- Usher
- Messenger
- Years in President's House
- 1890 – 1905
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Biography
Robert C. Mitchell was born around 1871 in New York and moved to Washington, D.C. as a child.1 As a teenager, Mitchell worked as a page in the United States Senate and was later hired as a “riding messenger” at the White House in 1890. In this role, he would have delivered time-sensitive, confidential messages from the White House via horseback.2 Later, Mitchell worked as an usher/doorkeeper, coordinating the president’s schedule, managing access to the White House and the Executive Offices, maintaining order, and ushering visitors into the Executive Mansion.3
In 1905, Mitchell departed from the White House and worked in immigration services at Ellis Island.4 He died in Los Angeles, California on April 26, 1918.5
- Robert C Mitchell in the California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939, Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1905-1939 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013; Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1903), 27.
- “From the Senate to the White House,” Evening Star, May 19, 1890, pg. 6; “Death of Robert Mitchell,” Evening Star, May 11, 1918, pg. 5.
- Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1903), 27; Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1905), 27; Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office, 1901), 35.
- “Death of Robert Mitchell,” Evening Star, May 11, 1918, pg. 5; “At White House,” Evening Star, November 21, 1907, pg. 7.
- Burial information was not included in Mitchell’s obituary. “Death of Robert Mitchell,” Evening Star, May 11, 1918, pg. 5.; “Robert C. Mitchell Dead,” Washington Post, May 11, 1918, pg. 15.
- Birthplace
- New York, USA
- Unclear from Context