Individual Details

Ancestry FamilyTree:
This is an excerpt from the Clifton Mirror, May 19, 1905. An "Old Folks Series" was published in this paper in Wayne County.
A second article was on the life of the Rev. James T. White, (Joe White's note: an older brother of William Jackson White) also told in the first person:
I was born on Flat Creek in Hardin County near the Wayne County line, two miles from the DeFord Mill, Sept. 4, l830. My grandparents came to Warren County from North Carolina when father was 10 years old. (Editor's note: The paper said Warren, but must be Wayne). They settled at DeFord's Mills. All of this region was a dense forest and canebrake, and the settlers had to cut wagon roads to their new habitations. My father grew up, married and lived at this place all his life and died at the ripe age of 80. To my grandparents were born 14 children, eight sons and six daughters, who all lived to maturity except one boy and one girl. Grandfather was Irish and grandmother Dutch, and both were members of the Primitive Baptist Church. My grandmother's father was a preacher in the church.
My mother's name was Elizabeth Conner. Her folks also came from North Carolina about the same time and settled in Williamson County and later came to Hardin. My parents were married Sept. 22, 1818. To them were born 10 sons and two daughters. I was the oldest. My father was a good man, honorable and God-fearing, and did not spoil his children by sparing the rod. We attended school near where Olive Hill now stands and thought nothing of trudging three miles every morning to get a meager education. We had to be at school by 7 o'clock, too, or give a good excuse for tardiness. If we did not fulfill these requirements, swish, came the rod, and then swish, it would come again at home. For our father would always duplicate our school whippings if we deserved them. A little of that sort of discipline would not hurt our young America in these latter days.
We were not afraid of water, mud, creeks, rocks and long distance and were barefoot at that, and the entire 12 of us lived to be grown.
Our sister and five brothers of us are still living, two brothers in Hardin County, one brother and sister in Texas, one brother in Arkansas and one in Missouri. Most of us belong to the C.P. Church.
In 1856, I wed Rebecca Sinclair near Pinhook. For 49 years of happy wedded life we have lived together. During all that time we have kept up our family altar. To us have been born seven sons and one daughter. We have given them a Christian training. It has been our ambition to raise them right.
They are all church members and witnesses for God. Our youngest son, R.C. White, is wholesale grocery man at Jacksonville, Fla. Our daughter, Mrs. W. R. Horton, lives at Maud. Okla. Her husband is a general merchant. Our oldest living son, J.M White, is with us in the stock and farming business. He lost his wife over two months ago, and he and his little son are living with us.
I began in the ministry during the Civil War, and trust I have been instrumental in leading hundreds of souls to Christ. I can still preach and expect to expound the word of the Lord as long as I have health and strength. I have married many couples and many of their children too. I have also taught school a good deal. I am still hale and hearty and attribute my bodily vigor to by abstemious habits and plenty of outdoor exercise. I have for many years made it a practice to drink about a quart of hot water for breakfast and find this an excellent therapeutic agency.
Though 75 years old, I find life yet young and with serene conscience and hopeful spirit await whatever the Lord may have in store for me. I have the constant witness of the spirit that I have a home in heaven and treasure laid up there. I am at peace with all mankind, and so far as I know have not an enemy on earth. Savannah, Tenn., R.F.D. 3.
Rev Jas T White

Birth

4 Sep 1830

Hardin County, Tennessee

Father	William Thomas WHITE (1804 - 1884)
Mother	Mary Elizabeth Conner (1812 - 1878)
Sibling	William J. WHITE (1832 - )
Sibling	John M. WHITE (1835 - )
Sibling	Andrew Burris WHITE (1836 - )
Sibling	George W. WHITE (1839 - )
Sibling	Francis M. WHITE (1840 - )
Sibling	Lucie E. White (1842 - 1845)
Sibling	Martha C. WHITE (1844 - )
Sibling	Jasper N. WHITE (1845 - )
Sibling	Robert M. WHITE (1847 - )
Sibling	Joel A. WHITE (1849 - )
Sibling	Franklin WHITE (1852 - )
Sibling	Mary Elizabeth WHITE (1854 - )