Hazael S. White

Amid the bloom of the heather and the tassels of the broom the ancestors of the subject of the present sketch (Hazael S. White) were born. He himself was a native of Vermont, where he was born July 26, 1804, and with his parents, Solomon and Hannah (Simon) White, when but a child, came to Antwerp, Jefferson County, New York, where, about two miles from the village, the elder White purchased a small farm, being a man of very limited means.

On this farm Mrs. White, the mother, died, after which event the father removed from his farm and resided with a son in the town of Redwood, where he lived to an advanced age. During the war with Great Britain in 1812-15, Mr. and his family, in common with many of their neighbors, endured untold hardships and privations consequent upon the unsettled condition of the country. Owing to the limited circumstances of his father, the younger White in his boyhood had but slight opportunities to acquire an education from books, and was forced to secure his knowledge in the bitter school of experience. When about twenty-four yeas of age he engaged in business for himself at Cape Vincent, in the line of a butcher; but the business proving unremunerative, he soon relinquished it and removed to Brownville, settling on Pillar Point. Here he remained about one year, when he removed to Hounsfield and engaged with Amos Catlin, in whose employ he remained four years. He then returned to the Point and purchased a small farm, and commenced jobbing. Dexter village was at this time just building, and he contracted for the job of quarrying the stone for the woolen factory, which was erected under the superintendency of Major Kirby. In his contract as in others Mr.White employed a large number of men. At the close of the work he took a contract for grading on the Sacket’s Harbor & Ellisburg railroad. Soon after he purchased a farm in Brownville, and began a successful course of agricultural operations. At the end of two years, he exchanged his farm for one now owned by his son, E. T. White, who purchased the same of his father two years afterwards, a view of which can be seen in another part of this work. Mr. White being now about fifty years of age, and feeling that he had secured a competency retired from active business. One principle actuated Mr.White during his whole business career, and that was fidelity to his engagements. He was prompt and punctual in the discharge of every obligation which he contracted, and pushed his business with all the vigor of his physical strength, and managed it judiciously and economically. In 1847 he experienced that mysterious change in his feelings that takes the thoughts away from earthly things and leads them to the heavenly. He joined the Methodist Episcopal church and became a devout and consistent member thereof, carrying into his new life the same earnest purpose and fidelity that characterized his business engagements. He died on January 17, 1873, of heart-disease, at his residence on Pillar Point.

On the 16th of September, 1829, he married Mary, daughter of John and Mary Root. They were of English parentage and birth, and settled at Pillar Point previous to the year 1812, being the third family to locate there. They purchased the farm, now owned by John Lee. Mr. and Mrs. White wre married at Cape Vincent. Seven children came to gladden the home of this pair with their music, and mirth, two of whom died in infancy. The others were, Ellbridge, born in 1830, and at present a prominent farmer in Brownville; Edwin, born September 10, 1831; William Eli, born April 14, 1836; Edward Everett, born October 27, 1845, and now deceased, and Miranda Louese, born April 21, 1849, also deceased. Mrs.White, an estimable lady, resides near the old homestead made sacred to her by many years of joy and sorrow, and is looking forward with joyful hope to the time when she will again meet those of her loved ones who have passed through the shadowy portals before her, and into the glorious life beyond.

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Transcribed by Holice B. Young from Jefferson Co. History by L. H. Everts.