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J. W. White
Vol. 3 Page 1918

     One of the leading grocery establishments of Edmond is conducted by
the firm of White & O'Connor.  Mr. White has for several years been one of that town's
most influential citizens.  He stands for high grade business principles, for good
sanitation and good morals and is a leader in moral and educational affairs.  Mr. White
came West from Kentucky at the age of twenty-seven, in search of health, and soon
afterwards turned his attention to ranching in Kansas.  He established near Syracuse in
that state, one of the best equipped ranches in that part of the country, and eventually
reached a success which enabled him to take up another line of business that was less
exciting and more suited to his talents.

     J. W. White was born near Irvine, Kentucky, in 1860, a son of John Thomas and
Mahala Jane (Barnett) White.  His father, a native of Kentucky, was for many years one
of the leading public schoolteachers of that state.  The paternal grandfather was a native
of Ireland and an early settler of Virginia, being a missionary Baptist preacher.  The
maternal grandparents were prosperous planters in Kentucky.

     Mr. White had a liberal education, first in the public schools and later in the Edgar
Institute at Paris, Kentucky.  After finishing his course in the latter, he taught school for
three years, but ill health compelled him to abandon that vocation.  Thus at the age of
twenty-seven he was beginning his career as a rancher at Syracuse, Kansas, and
continued a resident of that locality until 1910, when he came to Edmond and engaged in
the grocery trade.  The junior member of the firm of White & O'Connor is M. J.
O'Connor.

     Mr. White was married in Kentucky in1882 to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Barnett.  The
have two children: Miss Dula White, who was formerly principal of the public schools of
Britton and is now a stenographer in Oklahoma City; and William Harrison white, aged
fifteen, a student in the public schools of Edmond.  Mr. White is a member of the
Christian Church, has held several important chairs in the lodge of Odd Fellows, and is a
member and chorister of the Men's Gospel Team of Edmond.  One interesting direction
in which his original mind has turned is as an inventor.  He has patented an auto and
vehicle wheel rim attachment, based on the coil spring principle, that promises to become
an important substitute for pneumatic tires.

     Mr. White has also been a useful citizen in the different localities where he has lived.
In Kansas he held the office of township assessor and for a number of years was a
member of the board of education in his school district.  In March, 1915, he was
nominated by the democrats for mayor of Edmond.

Transcribed by OKGenWeb Norma Capehart March 6, 2003.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).