William J. Wilkins
Cite this Page
"William J. Wilkins," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/532.
- Positions
- Houseman
- Butler
- Years in President's House
- 1890 – 1893
- 1897 – 1932
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Biography
- William J. Wilkins was born in Virginia in July 1862.1 He first joined the White House staff in 1890 during Benjamin Harrison’s presidency, but was relieved of his position (likely as a cleaner or butler) in 1893 when President Grover Cleveland returned to the White House and discharged many of the domestic servants. Wilkins worked at the Government Printing Office for the rest of Cleveland’s term.2 According to a 1913 article in The New York Times: “Wilkins was reappointed to the White House force when Major McKinley became President, and he has done service there ever since.”3 Wilkins primarily worked as a houseman, seeing to the general cleanliness of the Second Floor, though he was sometimes listed as a butler.4 During the Hoover years, he assisted First Lady Lou Hoover in compiling historical information for her inventory of the White House, drawing upon decades of experience in the Executive Mansion. Wilkins retired from the White House in the summer of 1932.5 He died on December 27, 1943, and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.6
- William J Wilkins in the 1900 United States Federal Census, Year: 1900; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: 159; Page: 5; Enumeration District: 0032, Ancestry.com.
- Ellen A. Riley to Lou Henry Hoover, January 1929, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, Servants and Aides General 1929-1933, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; “White House Figure, Who Aided 8 Presidents, Dies,” The Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), January 8, 1944, pg. 16.
- “Wilson Will Enjoy Southern Cooking,” The New York Times, January 26, 1913, pg. 56.
- Elizabeth Jaffray, Secrets of the White House (New York: Cosmopolitan Book Co., 1926), 21.
- “White House Figure, Who Aided 8 Presidents, Dies,” The Afro-American (Baltimore, MD), January 8, 1944, pg. 16; “White House Employees, 1932, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1932, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
- “Wilkins, William J.,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), December 30, 1943, pg. 8.
- Birthplace
- Virginia, USA
- Lincoln Memorial Cemetery