Butte County
Biographies
RICHARD WHITE
RICHARD WHITE.--An eminent citizen,
prominently identified with Butte County as either educator or jurist, since
the early eighties, and who had done much to improve and advance the conditions
in each field where he has been a leader, is Richard White, who was born near
Poolesville, Montgomery County, Md. He studied law under George Peter,
ex-president of the State Senate in Maryland,
and one of the oldest members of the bar in that state.
The
date of the birth of Richard White was September 5, 1857, and his parents were
Thomas H. and Mary Ellen (Gott) White. He was
educated in the public schools of his native state and at St.
John's College, Annapolis,
where he graduated in 1877, and in 1888 received the honorary degree of A. M.
He obtained his first introduction in law at Rockville, Md.,
in 1878-1879, and studied law the next year at the University
of Virginia. He was admitted to
practice in all the courts of Maryland, before the
Circuit Court at Rockville, on June 9, 1880, and in May
the following year he removed to California.
Mr.
White began his career in Butte County by working in the harvest field of Uncle
Joe Clark near Nord, during the summer of 1881, and the following September he
engaged in teaching school in this county. On August 20, 1884, he was admitted
to practice at the bar of California in the Supreme Court, and the same year he
became superintendent of schools of Chico,
which position he held from 1885 to 1890. When he assumed charge, the schools
were in serious disorder, but this condition he greatly improved and brought
order out of chaos. For eighteen months he was principal of the San
Leandro school, and then taught at Willows.
From
January, 1893, until January, 1895, Mr. White was assistant district attorney
of Butte County, and he has practice law at Chico ever since. He has served as
city clerk, city attorney and city recorder, leaving the office in May, 1915.
While a teacher in Chico he was, for nine years, a member
of the County Board of
Education, and for five years of that time he
acted as president of the board. He served as chief deputy county clerk under
Frank A. Peachy in 1885. While city clerk he drew the ordinance accepting Bidwell
Park of about two thousand acres, a
gift to the city from Mrs. Bidwell. Mr. White made the speech of acceptance and
presented Mrs. Bidwell with an engrossed copy of the ordinance of acceptance.
As a city attorney he was the legal adviser in the attempt to secure the
Carnegie library, and they obtained ten thousand dollars for the new building.
He became a trustee of the library board and has been a member of it ever
since, also serving as a member of the finance committee. He wrote the rules
for the library. He compiled the city ordinances when he was a city clerk, in 1897,
and originated and drew the first seal--"City of Roses" (from three
La France roses combined)--for Chico.
After
General Bidwell's death, Judge White suggested making a small portrait of the
General with his name underneath, and placing it on the seal of the city in
place of the roses, and this was done at the next meeting of the board; Judge
White was appointed a committee of one to secure the portrait of General
Bidwell, and he secured the one now hanging in the council chamber.
Besides
being authorized to practice law at the bar of California, Judge White was
admitted to the United States Court
for the Northern District, on September 13, 1905, at San
Francisco; and to the United States Circuit Court,
Ninth Judicial District, on July 13, 1908.
On
December 30,1891, Judge White was married to Miss
Florence Earll, born in Austin, Nev.,
but reared in Napa County.
She was graduated from Miss Snell's Seminary in Oakland.
She is a daughter of William Earll, a pioneer
merchant at Dunnigan, Yolo
County, who, in 1880, became one of the
merchants in Chico. Of this union
two children have been born; Margery, a graduate of the Chico State Normal and
of Mills College,
is now the wife of Lieut. S. C. Whipple, Eighth Mounted Engineers, U.
S. A.; and Nancy Ellen, a graduate of the Chico
State Normal School,
class of 1918.
In
1907, Mr. White was elected city recorder of Chico,
and so acceptable were his services that he was twice reelected to the office
and served till May, 1915. He was a member of Company A, Eighth Regiment, N. G.
C., in which he served from 1883 to 1890, being first lieutenant during the
last three years indicated. He is an exempt fireman, having held membership in
the Deluge Hose Company. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Oroville Lodge, No.
103, F. & A. M., was exalted to the Royal Arch degree in Franklin Chapter,
No. 12, R. A. M., at Oroville, where he served as High Priest from 1893 to
1895, and was knighted in Oroville Commandery, No. 5,
K. T.
Through
the reduction in his price of the C. F. Lott Ranch, of twenty-four hundred
forty acres, located near Durham, it was possible for
Judge White to establish in Butte County
the State Land Settlement Colony, thereby making about sixty-eight hundred
acres of land to be improved by the state under the recent State Land Act, for
intensive farming. This land is being subdivided and sold off in small holdings
to selected settlers. This is the first attempt made in the United
States to adopt this mode of colonization and it is
modeled after the plan of Dr. Mead, in Australia.
It is destined to result in the greatest benefit for the growth and development
of Butte County.
All in all, Judge White has always given of his best efforts towards improving
the county along with all lines of endeavor, educationally, socially and
commercially, and he is a man whom any community may well feel proud to have as
a citizen.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 675-676, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Sande Beach.
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