Sacramento County
Biographies
CLINTON L. WHITE
CLINTON
L. WHITE.--Among the oldest and most distinguished members of the California
Bar, widely and favorably known throughout and beyond the confines of
Sacramento County, is Clinton L. White, who has gained an enviable place as a
counselor and attorney, having acquired, during his long years of practice, a
clientele highly appreciative of his knowledge of the law, his keen
interpretation of legal questions, and his straightforwardness in giving the
most conscientious and dependable advice.
He was born on September 6, 1850, on a farm about two miles east of the
village of Springville, Linn County, Iowa, where he spent his boyhood working
on the farm in summer, and attending the district school in winter. In the autumn of 1868, satisfying an ambition
to get a higher education, he matriculated at Cornell College, Mount Vernon,
Iowa; and in the spring of 1874 he was duly graduated from that institution,
after which, in August of the same year, he came out to California, and in the
fall took the required normal examination and was granted a teacher’s
certificate. He began teaching in the
Hungry Hollow district, in the foot-hills in Placer
County, and put in eight months in
the schoolroom, while he read Blackstone outside of school hours. He then entered the law office of George
Cadwalader in Sacramento, as both a
clerk and a student, and there spent two years in assiduous application to the
study of law. Licensed to practice by
the supreme court of California in 1877, he at once
began in Sacramento to follow the
profession of his choice. He met with
success from the very beginning, and so did not experience the long period of
hardship and semi-starvation which the majority of young lawyers have to
undergo before being recognized as professionally capable. Early in life, he
learned that industry will beat genius; and for many years past he has been
among the busiest of men, either in the more extended study of general legal
principles or in their special application to matters of business entrusted by
confiding clients to his management. In
1879, he prepared the manuscript for a book on Criminal Law which was published
by the Bancroft-Whitney Company, and which was well received by the
profession—a natural success for one who, in 1880 and
again in 1881, was secretary of the Judiciary Committee of the California State
Senate.
For
the two years 1881-1882, Mr. White filled the office of deputy attorney-general
of California, and in that
capacity was in almost constant attendance upon the supreme
court, arguing the state’s side of the criminal cases in which appeals
had been taken. He served for ten years
in the California National Guard, beginning with the rank of lieutenant, and reaching
that of major and judge-advocate. In
1892 he was a member of the Board of Freeholders, which prepared the charter
for the governing of the city of Sacramento; and in 1908
and 1909, he served a term of two years as mayor of Sacramento. In 1912 he was a delegate to the Republican
National Convention in Chicago, and
in 1916 he was a delegate to the Progressive National Convention. In 1919, the degree of Doctor of Laws was
conferred upon him by his Alma Mater, Cornell
College.
Soon
after leaving the office of George Cadwalader, Mr. White became associated with
Wilbur F. George under the firm name of White & George. About two years later the firm was dissolved,
and Mr. White became a partner with A. L. Hart, at that time attorney-general
of California, under the firm
name of Hart & White. After the
dissolution of this firm, Mr. White practiced law by himself for some years,
until the foundation of the well-known firm of White, Hughes & Seymour; and
upon the election of Joseph W. Hughes to the superior court of Sacramento
County, the firm became White &
Seymour, and continued as such for several years. It was then dissolved, and Arthur M. Seymour
was elected district attorney of Sacramento
County. In May, 1901, Mr. White and Arthur E. Miller
of Sacramento entered into a partnership and conducted
business under the firm name of White & Miller until the election of Mr.
White as mayor of Sacramento. Then they took in as co-partner Judge C. E.
McLaughlin, under the firm name of White, Miller & McLaughlin. Upon the dissolution of this firm, Messrs.
White and Miller took in Irving Needham and Clinton E. Harber as partners, and
their practice continued under the style of White, Miller, Needham
& Harber. On January 1, 1914, the firm was further augmented by the
addition of Herbert E. White. Since then
the personnel of the firm has remained the same, the five members of the firm
working together in perfect harmony.
They have been exceptionally successful and prosperous, representing,
among others of their important clientele, the National Bank of D. O. Mills
& Company, the People’s Bank, the Equitable Life Insurance Company, and the
New York Life Insurance Company, in their local interests. Mr. White is one of the largest stockholders
in the People’s Bank, in which he is serving as a member of the board of
directors.
On
January 1, 1885, Clinton L. White married Miss Margaret
Olive McKinney, of Stirling, Ill. Two children were born of the fortunate
union: Edith M. White, a graduate of
Cornell, Class of 1909; and Herbert E. White, who was graduated from Stanford
University in 1911, and is now a member of the
law-firm of White, Miller, Needham & Harber, of Sacramento,
actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. Mr. White was bereaved of his gifted, devoted
and loving wife on December 20, 1914, since which time his life has been
deprived of its chief source of inspiration.
Despite this heavy personal affliction and loss, however, his life has
been unceasingly active in constructive effort, and the work he has
accomplished has been of distinct value to the community and the state in which
he has lived and toiled. Mr. White’s
entire professional life has been spent in Sacramento
County, in whose development and
growth he takes pride and pleasure. He
is indeed loyal to the city of his adoption, and his fellow-citizens in turn
esteem him most highly for his generous and kindly nature, his integrity and
honesty of purpose, and his many sterling attributes
of mind and heart.
Transcribed
by Barbara Gaffney.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches,
Pages 351-352. Historic Record Company, Los
Angeles, CA. 1923.
© 2007 Barbara Gaffney.