Norman D. White Biography


	This biography appears on pages 67-68 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				NORMAN D. WHITE. 

	The hardships and privations of pioneer life have long since 
become a thing of the past, but it is within the memory of many 
residents of Yankton county that the early settlers were struggling 
with conditions that would have proved utterly disheartening to men of 
less resolute spirit and determination, but the pioneer settlers were 
made of sturdy stuff and they overcame the many obstacles which they 
met and as the years have passed have here builded a great 
commonwealth. Among those whose memory compasses the period of pioneer 
life in Yankton county is Norman D. White, who is now successfully 
following farming on section 34, Mission Hill township, that county. 

	The White family is one of the best known in the southern part of 
Yankton county. Their ancestry is traced back to Elder John White and 
his wife, Mary, who sailed in the ship Lyon in June, 1632, and landed 
at Boston on Sunday, the 16th of September. Representatives of the 
family have been prominent in public affairs in the various localities 
in which they have lived. John White, father of Norman D. White, was 
born in Jamestown, New York, on the banks of the Chautauqua lake in 
1826 and in the '40s removed westward to Illinois, securing a farm in 
Jo Daviess county on the state line near Scales Mound. While there he 
married Henrietta Phelps, also a representative of an early colonial 
family, descended from James Phelps, who was born in Tewksbury, 
England, in 1520. His son William, born about 1560, came with his wife, 
Dorothy, and their children to America when an old man on the vessel 
Mary and John, landing at Hull, near Boston, in 1630, and afterward 
removing to Dorchester. He was the progenitor of a large number of 
those in America today who bear the name of Phelps. John White, having 
been induced to come to Dakota and buy land, made his way to Yankton 
and soon afterward purchased the Todd farm on James river east of the 
city of Yankton in the fall of 1880. After the flood of the following 
spring he could not have borrowed five hundred dollars on the entire 
farm, land having so greatly depreciated in the flood district. 

	The first of the family to move to the Dakota farm was the eldest 
son, Thomas White, who came to the territory a few weeks after the 
waters of the flood had receded and began the strenuous task of 
bringing order out of chaos. He reached Sioux City June 11, 1881, and 
found the railroad washed out almost the entire distance from that 
point to Yankton, while the wagon roads were in such a state that they 
could not be traversed by teams. He was compelled to cross the river at 
that point, travel the bluff roads through Nebraska and recross into 
Dakota at Yankton, then double back to the James river ferry from 
there. With resolute spirit he began the development of the home farm. 
The half section had been divided into five fields and fenced with 
boards nailed upon cedar posts, but of all the miles of fence barely 
forty posts remained after the flood. The new corn crib which had been 
built by Mr. White in the fall in which he purchased the farm was 
carried a half mile down stream and most of the lumber was stolen 
before Thomas White could arrive upon the scene. Only fifty-five acres 
of the farm were under cultivation, but this amount Thomas White 
rapidly increased and he likewise brought under cultivation the 
Erickson tract to the north, which was later added to the original 
purchase, the two tracts being developed into one of the finest farms 
in the James river valley. 

	Thomas White continued to live alone upon the farm until the 
spring of 1884, when his sister Delia, now Mrs. William C. Coulson, 
came to Dakota and kept house for him until the others of the, family 
joined them. The father sold his farm in Illinois in February, 1885, 
and on the 6th of April of that year started with his family for the 
northwest. They reached their destination four days later and here Mr. 
White added to the original purchase until his landed possessions 
amounted to about thirteen hundred acres. He erected a large commodious 
dwelling, ample barns, sheds, cribs and other outbuildings, 
transforming his place into what was then one of the best improved 
farms of the territory. Mr. White passed away in 1897 and the mother's 
demise occurred in 1912. 

	Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. John White, five now live in 
Yankton county. Thomas, the eldest of the children, was, as previously 
stated, the first of the family to come to Dakota. He remained upon the 
home farm until after his father's death and later began farming on his 
own account. He now owns a fine farm on the east bank of the James 
river three miles below the steel bridge. Cecil, the second, was the 
last of the family to come to Dakota. He was engaged in mercantile 
pursuits in Illinois and Wisconsin until 1894, when he joined the 
others of the family in Yankton. He purchased a few acres from his 
father at the east end of the James river bridge and engaged in 
merchandising there. He also owns a fine farm nearby. Delia joined her 
brother Thomas in 1884, keeping house for him until the remainder of 
the family came to the territory. She is now the wife of William C. 
Coulson, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this volume. Norman D. 
and Addie, now the wife of William Van Eps, came to Dakota in 1885 with 
their parents. 

	Norman D. White was born at Scales Mound, Jo Daviess county, 
Illinois, August 2, 1863. Except for a year,s visit at the home of a 
cousin in New York, his entire life has been spent in Illinois and 
Dakota. He was a young man of about twenty-two years when the family 
removed to this state. 

	On the 16th of April, 1904, he was united in marriage to Miss 
Blanche Hill, a native of Beresford, South Dakota, and a daughter of 
Rufus A. and Emma (Hatch) Hill. Mrs. White passed away November 24, 
1913, leaving two children, Madras and Noble. 

	The home farm of Norman D. White comprises two hundred and twenty 
acres of rich and arable land and he also has an interest in three 
hundred acres of his father's farm. He has ever been an energetic, 
industrious agriculturist and employs the most modern methods in 
tilling his fields and producing his crops. His work has been attended 
with a substantial measure of success and his energy and capability 
place him with the leading agriculturists of his community. Fraternally 
he is well known as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Order of Eagles and the Knights of the Maccabees. He now has a wide 
acquaintance in Yankton county and that part of the state and his 
friends are many.