Southampton County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....White, William W., 1918 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ WILLIAM WALTER WHITE - CSA William Walter White was born near Sebrell, Southampton county, Va., April 24, 1842, and passed peacefully to rest May 2, 1918, rounding out an unusually long and useful life spent in service to his country, his county, his family and to the Christian faith, true to every trust, faithful to all obligations and one of the finest types of the old-fashioned Southern gentleman it has ever been the pleasure of the writer to know. He was the son of the Reverend John W. White, who was for more than fifty years an honored member of the Virginia Conference of the M.E. Church, South and his mother was Ann Rebecca Cobb, the daughter of Jeremiah Cobb of this county. His mother dying when he was five years old*, he was raised by three maiden aunts, his mother’s sisters, and reared by them as tenderly and as carefully as an own mother could have done. He was taught at home by his aunts, Mrs.* M. Jane Cobb being his special instructor, until his eleventh year when he was sent to Dr. Robert Murray, an eminent teacher of his day. The following year he attended the academy at Neuville, near the present town of Waverly, where Hon. Jas. E. Sebrell, now of Courtland, was principal. The next session Mr. Sebrell was made principal of a newly-founded academy near the site of the present village of Sebrell and Mr. White was a pupil there until 1857 when he entered Randolph-Macon College, which was located at that time near Boydton, Mecklenburg County. Graduating from this institution with honor in June 1861 he immediately entered the confederate army, fighting in nearly all of its great battles from Yorktown and Williamsburg to Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, where he was slightly wounded and was taken prisoner. He was one of those whose privilege it was to go over the stone fence to the "High water mark" of that famous field, and was standing near enough to General Armistead to have touch him when that gallant Southern leader fell mortally wounded on a spot now historic the world over. Those who knew Walter White in the army of the Confederacy always spoke of him as a soldier without fear and without reproach; none the less the Christian and the courteous gentleman in that, as a intrepid follower of the Stars and Bars, he was among the bravest of the brave. Returning home at the close of the war, he was, in common with most of his comrades, practically penniless and began to teach school in the fall of 1865, teaching continuously first in private institutions and then in public schools for 47 years., and during this time he taught for 27 consecutive sessions in the same building. He was made County Superintendent of schools for Southampton County in 1905 and in this capacity served his native county with the same measure of loyalty and zeal as had characterized his service as a soldier in his earlier years. Holding this position until 1913 when fast falling health caused him to retire, it was his good fortune and his delight to see our county school system take on new life and respond to the general development of the public schools of the State and to have a prominent personal part in the rapid improvement of school facilities and equipment throughout Southampton. In February 1911, he lost by death his beloved wife who was Miss Mary Eliza Owen of Sussex County. His devotion to her was exceptional and exquisite in its many manifestations in their home and those who were intimate with him knew that he never recovered from this bereavement. Attacked by that fatal malady, Bright’s disease, he became blind and lingered until the end, his faith in God and the fortitude of the trusting Christian sustaining him through the darkest hours. He is survived by his daughter, Mrs. Wilmer T. Cobb, whose privilege it was to minister to and comfort him during his declining years with untiring solicitude and beautiful filial devotion. He also leaves a little granddaughter, Mary Owen Cobb, aged seven. He was active in church work and was a steward of Trinity M.E. Church for more than 40 years, and was a useful worker in its Sunday school as long as he was able to attend. The funeral services were conducted from his late residence Saturday afternoon, May 4, by his pastor, Rev. W.L. Burks and his body was laid to rest in the family plot in the cemetery at Courtland. The active pallbearers were W.S. Briggs, J.W. Urquhart, H.D. Babb, Dr. E. B. Kilby, B.T. Bell, J.D. Vick, A.A. Williams, L.M. Cobb. The honorary pallbearers were nine Confederate Veterans, Col. L.R. Edwards, Hon. C.C. Vaughan, Sr., Hon. J.L. Barham, J.P. Gay, L.L. Manry, Hon. Jas E. Sebrell, Jno. I. Turner, E.R. Reese, Sr., W.R.L. Cobb, Sr., and the following friends and neighbors of the deceased: S.V. Camp, B.W. Sebrell, J.T. Rowe, W.D. Bell, W.T. Pittman, J.W. White, W.T. Joyner, J.L. Cobb, C.W. Williams, H.B. McLemore, Jas. T. Gillette, E. Whitfield, W.R.L. Cobb, Jno. N. Sebrell, Sr., Dr. E.F. Reese, Dr. T.F. Jarratt, W.J. Sebrell, T.H. Birdsong, J. Ben Davis, B.F. Briggs, A.L. Cobb, B.E. Cobb, Jr., H.C. Williams, Dr. C.H. Pette, Hon. Jno. C. Parker, W.T. Pace, Lonnie Urquhart, Hon. William Shands, J.E. Moyler and Paul Scarborough. William Walter WHITE, educator- retired Superintendent, Confederate veteran, b. 24 Apr 1842, near Sebrell, d. 2 May 1918, interred in Riverside Cemetery (Episcopal Section, Plot 3**), Courtland, 4 May 1918, "The Tidewater News" (Franklin, VA), May 10, 1918, pp. 1, 4 **Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS}, Cemetery Project, Riverside list: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/riverside.txt *Additional information: He was seven when his mother died. She is buried with her parents in a COBB family cemetery, on Cabin Point Rd. SCHS, Cemetery Project, Miscellaneous Cemeteries, Vol. 6 (VI-40): http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/cemeteries/miscvol6.txt His "special instructor" was likely maiden aunt Miss Margaret Jane COBB - a teacher in 1850. William & his sis Ann appear in the 1850 & '60 Census in the household of their maternal uncles & aunts, in Southampton Co. (Nottoway P'sh). His father was enumerated in the 1850 Census with James M. and Prudence V. PERKINSON (N. Dist., Dinwiddie Co., VA; p. 465), but he was "Itinerant" (underlined), not a member of the household. He was enumerated in the 1860 Census in the household of Levi D. and Elizabeth A. AMES (Lower P'sh, Nansemond Co., VA; p. 446). Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/southampton/obits/w300w2ob.txt