- HORACE WHITE. The city of Beloit was settled by a colony
composed mainly of people from
- New Hampshire, strenuous and enterprising. It was called
the New England Emigration Company. The agent of this company,
sent forward for the purpose of locating the new abode and initiating
arrangements for the future home, was Horace WHITE, a man whose
memory is worthy of being perpetuated. He was a native Bethlehem,
N.H., born March 17, 1810; and, accordingly, when he reached
Beloit, was about twenty-six years of age, - alert, sagacious,
fruitful in resources, going forward to achieve where others
hesitated. Plain and simple in his address, tall, slender, with
pale countenance and dark hair and eye, he seems to have moved
in the front in carrying forward the infant enterprise. His journey
through the region in seeking the proper location for the colony
was extensive; but his quick sagacity discerned the advantages
of the spot chosen, in the angle between the Rock, the Turtle
and the bluff - a choice which the event has justified.
- Mr. WHITE was a physician by profession, but, like many others,
the exigencies of the new life
- compelled him to add to his wide and useful professional
labors the performance of many public services. He seems to have
been, by his open and accessible nature, a favorite with his
fellow-citizens, and because of his executive qualities indispensable
to their pressing demands. Besides filling several offices in
the City Government, he was frequently employed in negotiating
in behalf of its interests elsewhere.
- It is said that in his earlier life Dr. WHITE was not especially
friendly to the requirements of the
- Christian religion; but in 1840, mainly under the influence
of the Rev. Dexter CLARY, Dr. WHITE became an active member of
the First Congregational Church of Beloit, and was the chief
instrument in providing the means for erecting the first house
of worship in the city. Being a physician, and finding it difficult
to collect his accounts in money, he was able to obtain in settlement
of them, the materials for the desired meeting house. It is one
case in which the lack of money has been the means of much good.
A church was built because there was no money in the infant city,
and the church was a substantial edifice of stone, the most respectable
one to be found in the State for years afterwards. Dr. WHITE
died after the completion of the church, seven days before it
was dedicated, Dec. 23, 1844. He left several children, one of
whom, a graduate of Beloit College, has been distinguished in
the discussion of economical questions, and is at present proprietor
of the Nation and editor of the New York Evening Post - Horace
WHITE, Esq., of New York.
-
- Taken from "The Portrait and Biographical Album of
Rock County, Wis." (c)1889, pp. 919-920.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|