White House Historical Association

George H. Robinson

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"George H. Robinson," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/625.
Position
Chauffeur
Years in President's House
1909 – 1910
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Male
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
William Howard Taft
Biography
  1. Little is known about George H. Robinson’s early life, but one newspaper article asserts that he was “raised on steam” and started to play with steam engine toys at six years old.1 As an adult, he made his childhood dreams reality and worked for the Chesapeake Bay Railroad and later became an engineer for Southern Railway. In 1905, he became a chauffeur for the Quartermaster’s Department of the Army, driving for Major General J. Franklin Bell. Secretary of War William Howard Taft went on a car ride with Bell and liked Robinson so much that he recruited him to be his driver instead.2 When Taft became president in 1909, Robinson became the first chauffeur for the White House, earning $100 per month and driving a White steamer. President Taft preferred cars to horses, and he began to retire the White House stables to create the first White House garage.3 In comparison to Taft’s other chauffeur, Abel E. Long, who was known as a cautious driver, Robinson drove fast and recklessly. A 1909 New York Times article about Robinson titled, “The Daredevil Chauffeur,” detailed an incident where Secret Service Agent Doc Sloan grabbed the throttle and shouted at Robinson, “Slow up, you devil, you’ll kill us all sometime.”4 Robinson’s daredevil driving habits eventually caught up with him. In July 1910, he was dismissed at Taft’s request and transferred back to the Quartermaster’s Department.5 He later worked as an Army chauffeur in both San Francisco and Hawai’i. In 1913 he was discharged from the Army after taking a leave of absence to care for his mother.6 Little information is known about his later life. However, during the 1960s, Robinson spoke with Smithsonian Associate Curator Herbert Ridgeway Collins about his time as White House chauffeur for a book titled Presidents on Wheels, stating, “‘President Taft was never a back seat driver and he’d say it was up to me how I drove.”7
  1. George Robinson is a common name. Even knowing the middle initial, it is difficult to determine the correct individual. “Taft’s Daredevil Chauffeur,” The New York Times, August 15, 1909, https://www.newspapers.com/image/25974167/?match=1&terms=Taft's Daredevil Chauffeur.
  2. “Taft’s Daredevil Chauffeur,” The New York Times; Michael L. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003), 48-49; Herbert Ridgeway, Presidents on Wheels: The Complete Collection of Carriages and Automobiles Used by Our American Presidents, ( New York: Bonanza Books, 1971), 129-130.
  3. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 48-49, 381.
  4. “Taft’s Daredevil Chauffeur,” The New York Times.
  5. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 285.
  6. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, 285.
  7. Many of Robinson’s recollections are exaggerated. For example, he claimed that he drove Taft to all the states during his 1912 election campaign. However, Taft transferred Robinson back to the Army in 1910. Collins, Presidents on Wheels, 133.
Birthplace
Unclear from Context
Unclear from Context
Related Workers
Abel E. Long
Transportation, 1909 – 1913
Francis H. Robinson
Transportation, 1910 – 1940
Related Association Content
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/motor-cars-come-to-the-white-house