Walter Wagstaff
Cite this Page
"Walter Wagstaff," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/639.
- Position
- Chauffeur
- Years in President's House
- circa 1909 – 1911
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Presidency
- William Howard Taft
- Biography
- Walter Wagstaff worked at the White House as a chauffeur during William Howard Taft’s presidency. President Taft preferred cars to horses, and he converted the White House Stables to create the first White House Garage. The date of Wagstaff’s start at the White House remains unclear but by 1910, he was on staff earning $80.00 per month.1 In February 1911, Wagstaff and fellow chauffeurs Francis H. Robinson and W. L. Jackson appeared in a newspaper article stating that these chauffeurs had been issued “operators’ licences” for Maryland, so that they could drive the president in that state.2 Wagstaff does not appear in further records working at the White House after 1911. Information about his birth, life before and after his time at the White House, remain unknown.
- Michael L. Bromley, William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency, (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2003), 381.
- “No Charge to Taft,” The Washington Evening Star, February 2, 1911, https://www.newspapers.com/image/331490116/?match=1&terms=Walter Wagstaff.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context
- Related Workers
- Francis H. RobinsonTransportation, 1910 – 1940
- W.L. JacksonTransportation, circa 1910 – 1911