Charles F. Diggs
- Positions
- Doorkeeper
- Usher
- Years in President's House
- 1893 – circa 1898
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Biography
Charles Francis Diggs was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 20, 1873.1 His mother Georgia was a friend of Frances Cleveland, and she asked the first lady to bring Charles onto the White House staff at the start of Grover Cleveland’s second term in 1893.2 The president appointed him to serve as an usher/doorkeeper, managing access to the White House and the Executive Offices, maintaining order, and ushering visitors into the Executive Mansion.3
According to D.C. city directories, Diggs continued to work there through at least part of William McKinley’s presidency in 1898; by 1899, he was working at the Pension Office.4 Diggs graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1902 and practiced in D.C. and Illinois. Later in life, he worked for the Federal Trade Commission.5 Outside of work, he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution; his great-grandfather Joseph Diggs had served as a surgeon for the Continental Army.6 Charles F. Diggs died on December 27, 1955, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.7
- Charles Francis Diggs in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005; “Charles F. Diggs,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59702052/charles-f.-diggs.
- “First Lady’s Protege,” Times Herald (Washington, D.C.), September 11, 1896, pg. 5.
- Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1893), 27; Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1895), 27; Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1897), 27.
- Official Register of the United States (Government Printing Office: Washington, D.C., 1899), 991; Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C., 1898), 367.
- “C. F. Diggs, Retired Attorney and Scion of Colonial Family,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), December 28, 1955, pg. 16.
- “C. F. Diggs, Retired Attorney and Scion of Colonial Family,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), December 28, 1955, pg. 16.
- “Charles F. Diggs,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59702052/charles-f.-diggs; “C. F. Diggs, Retired Attorney and Scion of Colonial Family,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), December 28, 1955, pg. 16.
- Birthplace
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Oak Hill Cemetery