Person:Willis White (3)

Willis S. White is a native of Perquimans County, N.C., born Oct. 4, 1815, the fifth of thirteen children of Theophilus and Margarett (Smith) White. His early educational advantages were limited, as his father was a poor man with a large family of children to support, and he was grown before he knew the first principles of arithmetic. These he learned from the figures in a Testament, and by measuring lumber, using a coal and shingle. He had a thirst for knowledge, and by clos application obtained a fair education. When he was fourteen years of age his father died. His older brother and sisters having married left the care of his mother and the younger children to him. He worked, for small wages fourteen years. In 1842 he moved to Guilford County, N.C., and although twenty-seven years of age, went to learn a trade, choosing that of wagon-making. He worked as an apprentice a year, and then worked as a journeyman three years, after which he engaged in business for himself, manufacturing wagons, and also was engaged in the undertaker's business. Being an Abolitionist, he made several trips North with fugitive slaves, and in 1857, not wishing to rear his children in a slave State, removed to Indiana, and rented land in Henry County three years. In 1860 he bought the farm in Franklin Township where he has since resided. His mother followed him to Indiana in 1860, and died at his home in 1862, aged seventy-seven years. M. White was married Feb. 14, 1839, to Sarah, daughter of Charles and Elva Cosand.

• from "History of Henry County, Ind"

Chapter #16, Franklin township, Page #637 reprinted 1966 by: Eastern Indiana Publishing Co.