William B. Dunlany

In 1903 and 1905, the official register of federal government employees listed a man named William B. Dunlany who worked at the White House as a messenger earning $900 per year.¹ These registers state that Dunlany was born in Tennessee but moved to Alexandria, Virginia prior to his appointment at the White House. No other information is currently known about his life before or after his White House service. 

However, evidence of his job responsibilities at the White House comes from a somewhat unusual source. In 1913, former-President Theodore Roosevelt sued a newspaper editor for libel for printing that Roosevelt drank heavily while in the White House. During the trial, Roosevelt’s lawyers read depositions from several White House employees who recalled Roosevelt’s moderate drinking habits, including Butler James E. Amos and “William Dunlaney.” Newspaper articles covering the trial identified Dunlaney as “former barber at the White House.”² The slight variation in the spelling of the name and differing job titles suggests these could be two separate employees, but the more likely explanation is that Dunlany performed a variety of jobs at the White House including both messenger work and barbering. White House messengers were government employees and received wages from congress, whereas barbers were not and would have been paid out-of-pocket by the president or first family. With this in mind, President Roosevelt could have hired Dunlany as a messenger but utilized his skills as a barber. However, without more evidence, this is conjecture.