Jacob Simms
Cite this Page
"Jacob Simms," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/750.
- Position
- Garage Staff
- Years in President's House
- circa 1926 – 1933
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Biography
- Jacob Simms was born in Washington, D.C. around 1877.1 Simms washed cars and did general labor in the White House Garage - in 1929, a memo about the garage staff states that Simms “has been on duty there for over three years” and “is on the White House payroll,” putting his estimated start of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency – it is possible he worked there beyond 1933, but documentation is scarce.2 Simms died on April 19, 1947, and was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Maryland.3
- (1) Jacob Simms in the 1930 United States Federal Census, Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0086; FHL microfilm: 2340029, Ancestry.com.
- Paul G. Hutton Memo, Presidential Papers, Subject File, The White House-Garage Correspondence, 1929, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; White House Employees, 1932, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1932, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Xmas List 1931, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1931, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Employee List, January 8, 1931, Presidential Papers, Subject File, The White House-Garage Correspondence, 1930-1933, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; "Negro Employees at the White House Executive Office, and White House Garage as of March 31, 1933," White House Office Personnel, 1933-1935; Records of the White House Office of Budget and Accounting, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
- “Simms, Jacob,” Evening Star, April 22, 1947, pg. 12.
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Lincoln Memorial Cemetery