White House Lincoln Ghost

The most famous White House ghost story may have begun with a man whose real work was keeping the building clean. Jeremiah “Jerry” Smith joined the White House staff during Ulysses S. Grant’s administration in the late 1860s. Over the next three decades he served in several roles, becoming a familiar presence to reporters who waited near the North Entrance to speak with him. They called him the “Knight of the Feather Duster.”

Smith was also a storyteller. Newspapers reported that he believed the White House was visited by the spirits of former presidents. In 1889, one account said he told stories about ghosts and claimed that the devil lived in the attic. The devil story had a practical origin, according to the White House Historical Association: Smith used it to keep young Nellie Grant and her friends from playing there. Other strange attic noises were later attributed to rats.