WESLEY WHITE, JR. For more than half a century the White family has been identified with Madison County, and always with the larger activities of farming and country life. Wesley White, Jr., is one of the Grand Army men still living in this County and has a splendid country home in Green Township. He has known Madison County since before the war, and has not only witnessed practically every important phase in the development of the region from the wilderness, but has borne his individual share of the labors and responsibilities in this work.
Wesley White, Jr., was born on a farm in Rush County, Indiana., August 15, 1844, and was one of the children in the family of the late Wesley White, Sr., and his wife, Lydia Nicholson White. Wesley White, Sr., was born in the state of Virginia in 1802, and his wife was born in Ohio in 1803. The father moved from Virginia to Ohio, and when still a single man came west to Indianapolis about the time Indianapolis was established as the capital of Indiana, and in that city he found employment by assisting in the construction of the first court . house there. Subsequently he returned to Ohio, was married in that state, and then brought his wife and family out to Rush County, Indiana. There he bought a quarter section of land and made it his home for fifteen years. Selling out his interests in Rush County, he came to Madison County, and paid $900.00 for one hundred and sixty acres. He kept adding to this original body of land until at one time he possessed 1,800 acres all in one piece. Practically all the land was covered with heavy timber when he bought it, and as a practical lumberman he established a saw mill in his woods, and for about ten years was engaged in working up all this timber into lumber. Much of the lumber which can now be found in some of the oldest houses in the County was the product of the White mills and came off the stumpage on the original. White estate. The senior White was a man of large business enterprise, as the preceding statements would indicate, and at the same time was very liberal and public spirited. He was held in the high esteem of his entire community, and was always, an active member and contributed to the Methodist church. In politics he was a staunch Republican after the formation of that party. There were nine children in the family and four are living in 1913. Mary is the widow of William Brattain and a resident in Hamilton County, Indiana; Linnia is the widow of Isaac Brattain and a resident of Pendleton, Indiana; Wesley, Jr., is next among those now living; and Lydia J. is the wife of John Smithers of Pendleton.
Wesley White, Jr., was two years old when his parents came to Indiana in 1846, and for that reason he has almost a claim to this County as his birthright place of residence. On the old homestead he grew to manhood and as opportunity permitted attended the district schools. When he was eighteen years old, the Civil war having come on and distracted the country, he enlisted in Company I of the Seventy-fifth Indiana Infantry in July, 1862. His service was in Kentucky and Tennessee and continued up to March, 1863. He was taken down with the fever and received an honorable discharge on March 10, 1863. On returning home from his military career he engaged in farming and subsequently moved to Noblesville, Indiana, where he made his home for twelve years. He then returned to the farm in Green Township, where he still resides. He possesses one hundred and seventy-three acres, has some of the best land in the Township, and cultivates it according to the best method approved by his long experience, and by the general science of modern agriculture. He is operating the farm for himself.
On March 28, 1867, Mr. White was married to Lucinda Stern, of Hamilton County, Indiana, where she was born and reared, a daughter of Samuel and Jane Stern. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and her mother in Marion County, Indiana. Mrs. White received her education in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. White are the parents of two children, now living. Fannie is the wife of Frank Anderson and lives in Noblesville; Harvina, a graduate of the Noblesville high school,’ is the wife of Jess Anderson, and they make their home with her father on the White farm in Green Township. There is 0ne granddaughter, Pauline, who was born August 9, 1907. Mr. White and family are members of the Christian church, and he is affiliated with Pendleton Post, No. 230, of the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics he votes as a Republican and has served as supervisor of his home Township.