Josephine Kneip
- Positions
- Lady's Maid
- Housekeeper
- Years in President's House
- 1889 – 1893
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- Benjamin Harrison
- Biography
Josephine Kneip was born on February 13, 1857, in Indianapolis, Indiana.1 In the 1880s, she began working for Benjamin and Caroline Harrison, and when they moved to the White House in 1889, Kneip joined them as the first lady’s personal maid and housekeeper.2 Her duties included household management, dressing the first lady, and traveling with the family.3 While in the White House, First Lady Caroline Harrison fell ill with tuberculosis and spent the summer of 1892 in the Adirondack Mountains to recover; Josephine joined her there.4 Miss Kneip was also at the first lady’s bedside when she died on October 25, 1892.5
She continued to work at the White House after Mrs. Harrison’s passing, primarily as housekeeper, and returned to Indianapolis with Benjamin Harrison at the end of his presidency in 1893. There, she served as his housekeeper for three more years, departing from the household around 1896.6 Outside of her career, Kneip was an active lifelong member of the First Evangelical Church in Indianapolis. She passed away on February 18, 1942, and was buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in that city.7
Thank you to the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site for providing research assistance with this biography.
- Miss Josephine Kneip in the Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2017, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2011; Year: 1942; Roll: 02, Ancestry.com.
- “Maid of Former First Lady Dies,” The Indianapolis Star, February 19, 1942, pg. 16.
- “The First Lady: Servants of the White House,” The Salt Lake Herald (Utah), June 1, 1890, pg. 13; “Family at Cape May Cottage,” Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, https://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/BHPS/id/6548.
- “On the Way Home,” Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), September 21, 1892, pg. 1.
- “Mrs. Harrison at Rest,” Public Press (Northumberland, Pennsylvania), October 28, 1892, pg. 1.
- “Maid of Former First Lady Dies,” The Indianapolis Star, February 19, 1942, pg. 16; Jennifer Capps, Email message to author, March 25, 2025.
- Miss Josephine Kneip in the Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2017, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2011; Year: 1942; Roll: 02, Ancestry.com; “Maid of Former First Lady Dies,” The Indianapolis Star, February 19, 1942, pg. 16; “Josephine ‘Josie’ Kneip,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45933292/josephine-kneip/photo.
- Birthplace
- Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
- Crown Hill Cemetery