Nelson Ward
Cite this Page
"Nelson Ward," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/803.
- Position
- Custodian
- Years in President's House
- circa 1929 – 1931
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Male
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- Herbert Hoover
- Biography
- Nelson Ward was born on July 28, 1904, in Virginia. (1) As early as 1929, he began working as a laborer/janitor at the White House, cleaning and maintaining the Executive Offices (known today as the West Wing). (2) He likely worked there through his death on May 19, 1931. (3) Nelson Ward was buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Maryland. (4)
- (1) Nelson Ward in the Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874-1931, District of Columbia Public Library; Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C. Deaths, 1874-1945, Ancestry.com.
(2) Employees on Duty at the Executive Office, 1929, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1929, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
(3) He was included on Lou Hoover’s 1930 annual staff Christmas list and the 1930 city directory, which suggests he was likely on staff at the time of his passing less than six months later. His death certificate listed him as a “porter” but gave no place of employment. See Christmas 1930, Lou Henry Hoover Papers, Subject Files, White House Christmas 1930, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; Nelson Ward in the Washington, District of Columbia, U.S., Death Certificates, 1874-1931, District of Columbia Public Library; Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C. Deaths, 1874-1945, Ancestry.com; Boyd’s Directory of the District of Columbia Vol. LXXII (R. L. Polk and Co., 1931), 1577.
(4) “Ward, Nelson,” Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), May 22, 1931, pg. 9. - Birthplace
- Virginia, USA