White House Historical Association

May Yoemans

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"May Yoemans," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/562.
Position
Maid
Years in President's House
circa 1893
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
Unclear from Context
Presidency
Grover Cleveland Second Term
Biography
In March 1893, an article in The World mentioned chambermaid “May Yoemans” as one of the servants traveling to the White House with incoming President Grover Cleveland.1 In this role, Yoemans would have cleaned the private spaces of the home. There are no other known records of May Yoemans working at the White House, and it is possible that the chambermaid mentioned in the article is Mary Cleveland “May” Yeomans, niece of President Grover Cleveland, although she was attending college in New York at this time.2 It is unclear if the newspaper misidentified Cleveland's niece, or if these are two different individuals.
  1. “Four Years More,” The World (New York, NY), March 3, 1893, pg. 5.
  2. “Mary Cleveland ‘May’ Yeomans Rodger,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/109523934/mary_cleveland-rodger; Cleveland Yeomans in the U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016, "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012"; School Name: Cornell University; Year: 1894, Ancestry.com.
Birthplace
Unclear from Context
Unclear from Context