Mr. White was born at Lancaster, N.H., February 7, 1811, being a son of Samuel and Sarah (Freeman) White and descendant of William White, an early settler of Essex County, Massachusetts. For a number of years in his youth he was employed in the Columbian Hotel, Concord, N.H. He started in business for himself in 1832, becoming a part owner in the stage route between Concord and Hanover, later buying the line between Concord and Lowell. He was a young man of more than ordinary ability, upright and honorable, and using neither intoxicants nor tobacco in any form. In 1837, in partnership with Captain William Walker, he established himself in the express business, making tri-weekly trips to Boston. Upon the opening of the Concord Railroad in 1842 he became one of the original members of the express company then organized to deliver goods throughout New Hampshire and Canada. He died at his home in Concord, October 2, 1880. In his forty-eight years of business life he had acquired something more than a competency, having become the possessor of valuable realty in Chicago, hotel property in New Hampshire, and stock in various railroad corporations, banks, manufactories, and other companies, in addition to his interests in the express company and in Concord real estate.
Mr. White took a deep interest in the establishment of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, the State Reform School, the Orphans' Home at Franklin, to which he gave a generous endowment, and of the Home for the Aged at Concord. Always a friend of the oppressed, he was an active member of the Antislavery Society, a stanch helper also of the cause of temperance and other unpopular reform movements, among them that of woman suffrage; his wife earnestly sympathizing and working with him. He was, with his wife, one of the original members of the Universalist Society in Concord and a constant attendant and liberal supporter of that society.
An earnest supporter from the early days of the movement in New England for the enfranchisement of women, Mrs. White has been active in organizing suffrage meetings and very hospitable in entertaining speakers, Lucy Stone, Mrs. Livermore, Mrs. Howe, and many others, having been her guests from time to time. She had in charge the New Hampshire tables at the several suffrage bazaars held in Boston, and in various ways contributed to their success. A writer in the book entitled "New Hampshire Women" gives this summary of Mrs. White's helpful activities:—
"The charitable and benevolent associations of the State have ever been the object of her fostering care. She was the first president of the New Hampshire W. C. T. U., and has been president of the New Hampshire Woman's Suffrage Association since its organization. Largely through her efforts, coupled with her husband's, was secured the legislation enabling the New Hampshire women to vote and hold office in connection with school affairs. Mrs. White is a member of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged, of the Orphans' Home in Franklin, and the Mercy Home in Manchester. She was active in their establishment, and has been a liberal supporter of each. The Universalist church in Concord and at large, and manifold charities, local and general, have ever commanded her earnest sympathy and generous aid." Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. White—namely, John A., Armenia E., Lizzie H., Annie Frances (who died in 1865 at the age of thirteen years), Nathaniel, Seldon F. (who died in infancy), and Benjamin C. Harriet S., an adopted daughter, married Dr. D. P. Dearbom, and is now a widow, living in Brattleboro, Vt.
Colonel John A. White, the eldest son, died November 26, 1899. His first wife, Elizabeth Mary Corning, died in 1873, leaving no children. His second wife was her cousin, Ella H. Coming. Of this union there was one child, Arnold, born in Concord, October 20, 1883.
Armenia E. White married Horatio Hobbs, of Boston, Mass. He died in 1889, leaving two children: Nathaniel White Hobbs, born November 1, 1873; and Annie White Hobbs, born July 28, 1875. Mrs. Hobbs and her son and daughter live with her mother, Mrs. White, in Concord. Lizzie H. White married C. H. Newhall, of Lynn, Mass. She died December 12, 1887.
