Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 9.djvu/301

 THE

��GRANITE MONTHLY.

A NEW HAMPSHIRE MAGAZINE.

Devoted to Literature, Biography, History, and State Progress.

��Vol. IX. OCTOBER and NOVEMBER, 1886. Nos. X & XL

��JEREMIAH W. WHITE, Esq.

��By Hon. John H. Goodale.

��On the headwaters of Suncook River, in the central region of New Hamp- shire, is the town of Pittsfield. It is hmited in extent, undulating in surface, rich in the quality of its soil. Its ear- liest settlers were sturdy farmers, men and women who from infancy had been accustomed to the hardships and priva- tions of pioneer life.

Among these settlers was Josiah White, who, with his wife of Scottish origin, in the spring of i 775 took up his abode in the outskirts of an unbroken forest. Years of hard labor followed, which at length brought to him and his family the comforts of a rural home. Of his sons, Jeremiah White, the father of the subject of this sketch, succeeded to the homestead. He was born March 4, 1775, ^^d' passing his life amid the scenes of his earlier days, died Decem- ber 5, 1848. He is still remembered by the older residents of Pittsfield as a citizen who was useful, influential, and respected. Of great personal activity and tact in business, genial and gen- erous, an enterprising farmer of the old school, a safe and sagacious ad- viser, his departure left a place difficult to fill in the business affairs of the vicinity.

��Jeremiah Wilson White was born in Pittsfield, September 16, 182 1. The active habits and pure atmosphere of his early rural life laid the foundation of a sound physical constitution. His opportunities for education during child- hood were limited to a few months at a distant district school. At the age of fifteen he entered the Pittsfield Acade- my, under the instruction of James F, Joy, a graduate of Dartmouth, and in later years well known as president of the Michigan Central Railroad. Pittsfield village had a thrifty and vigorous popu- lation, and among her ambitious and talented young men were several who have since been conspicuous in public life. One became United States sena- tor ; three, judges of the supreme court in their respective States ; and one, founder of the system of public instruc- tion now in successful operation on the Pacific coast. Remaining at the Acad- emy two and a half years, Mr. White, then in his seventeenth year, decided to prepare himself for mercantile and active business life. Adopting the plan which appeared most feasible, he went to Boston and entered upon an appren- ticeship in a drug-store. Forty years ago a mercantile apprenticeship in that

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