BIO:  James WHITE, Liberty Township, Adams County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania
Chicago:  Warner, Beers & Co., 1886
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Part III, History of Adams County, Pages 472-473

JAMES WHITE, farmer, P. O. Fairfield, comes of an old Scotch-Irish family, his 
great-grandfather, John White, having come from Ireland early in the last 
century, locating first near Philadelphia, and removing thence to Lancaster 
County, where his son, James, grandfather of our subject, was born in 1762.  
This James White came to Hunterstown, in what is now Straban Township, this 
county, but afterward took up a large tract of land on Middle Creek, in Freedom 
Township, which is now cut up into three or four farms, one of which, including 
the homestead, is now owned by his grandson, Judge A. Fleming White.  On this 
place he remained until his death, in 1840; he died at the age of seventy-eight.  
He was twice married - first to Elizabeth Paden, who bore him four children:  
Samuel, John, Elizabeth and James.  After his wife’s decease he married 
Elizabeth Ross, who had five children:  Hetty, Jane, Andrew, Margaret and 
Thomas.  Of this family only James survives, living in Springfield, Ill.  
Samuel, the father of our subject, was born April 9, 1791, and lived on the 
homestead until his marriage at the age of twenty-four, when he removed to 
another part of the tract, where he died in 1869, aged seventy-eight.  His wife 
was Elizabeth Witherspoon, born in 1797, and who died in 1864, aged sixty-seven.  
Their children were Mary, widow of Andrew Reid, living in Freedom Township, this 
county; Margaret and Susan, who both died young; Margaret Elizabeth, wife of 
Robert Lott (she died on the homestead); Rebecca, wife of John G. Neely (she 
died in Iowa); John E., married to Clarissa Jane Waybright, and living in 
Kansas.  James, the subject of this sketch, was born February 12, 1825, and 
lived with his parents until his marriage, when he rented a farm for three 
years, at the end of which time, in 1851, he went to Illinois, staying there 
until 1870, when he moved to Nebraska, leaving there in 1880 for the place where 
he now lives.  October 5, 1847, he was married to Mary Jane Scott, of Freedom 
Township, this county, born January 27, 1828, who died in Nebraska, July 31, 
1877.  She had nine children, four of whom died young:  Samuel C., Rachel P., 
Elizabeth L. and an unnamed infant; five now survive:  James W., born November 
6, 1852, married to Ella J. Warner, and living in Nebraska; William E., born 
August 4, 1855, married to Mary F. Kean, and living in Washington Territory; 
Scott A., born March 6, 1860, and living at Steelton, Dauphin Co., Penn.; 
Margaret R., born March 31, 1862, wife of Milo J. Minor, and living in 
Washington Territory; and Rosa B., born March 10, 1869, living with her father.  
December 30, 1879, Mr. White was married to his deceased wife’s sister, Rosa E. 
Scott, born May 14, 1841, who has no children.  Mr. White has always been a 
farmer.  He is now a justice of the peace, a position to which he was twice 
elected in Nebraska, but refused to accept.  He is a Prohibitionist in 
principle, and is prominent in church matters.  He was one of sixteen who 
organized the Presbyterian Church at Farmer City, Ill., and on his removal to 
Hall County, Neb., was one of fourteen to organize the Wood River Church, which 
afterward sent him as a delegate to the general assembly, in 1878, held in 
Pittsburgh, Penn.  On his return here he affiliated with the Lower Marsh Creek 
Church, and is active in Sunday-school work.  As an upright man and a consistent 
Christian he has the confidence of all who know him.  In politics he is a 
Prohibitionist.