Eliza Pister
Cite this Page
"Eliza Pister," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/83.
- Position
- Unclear from Context Unclear from Context
- Years in President's House
- circa 1794
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Presidency
- George Washington
- Biography
- Information about Eliza Pister’s life outside of the President’s House is currently unknown.1 Eliza Pister appears once working for George Washington in household records for the President’s House in Philadelphia. In May 1794, she appeared alongside a woman named Ann Warner for “work done in the house.” The pair were paid $7.00 combined for this work. It is likely Pister was briefly hired for short term work.2
- A woman named Elizabeth Pister appears in a Philadelphia marriage record in 1793, marrying a man named Heinrich Habich. It is possible this is the same individual. “Elizabeth Pister in the Pennsylvania, U.S., Compiled Marriage Record, 1700-1821,” Ancestry, accessed November 4, 2025, https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2383/records/167068?tid=&pid=&queryId=67d0335a-8444-41e1-822f-c3609ea43e74&_phsrc=OuO727&_phstart=successSource.
- “Washington’s Household Account Book, 1793-1797 (Continued),” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1906, Vol. 30, No. 2, 181, https://www-jstor-org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/pdf/20085330.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default:3538ab8a1197726aa250c965b5bf39cd&ab_segments=&initiator=recommender&acceptTC=1.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from Context
- Unclear from Context
- Related Worker
- Ann WarnerHousekeeping and Laundry, circa 1794