Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JAMES M. WHITE
During the six years of his residence in Gilroy James M. White has erected many buildings which attest his skill and ingenuity, and which place him among the foremost builders and contractors of Santa Clara county. The possibility of continual advancement, of branching out into new and untried avenues, of becoming an important factor in the development of a given community, are all appreciated by this master workman, who began at the bottom round of his calling and by sheer force of industry and determination has become an intelligent guide of others and a large employer of labor. Some of the finest residences in Gilroy have been built by Mr. White, and have given satisfaction because of their appropriateness, their harmony of design, and their convenience of arrangement. His work shows careful and painstaking thought, as well as a thorough knowledge of the mechanical side of building.
The immediate connections of Mr. White's life have been of a high order, and his youth had the advantage of a refined and Christian home. He was born in Knoxville, Iowa, July 24, 1861, and is a son of Rev. Joseph and Margaret (McKown) White, natives of Pennsylvania, and the former born in Washington county. Rev. Joseph White went from the farm and the district school to a United Presbyterian College, and after graduation settled in Iowa, of which he was a pioneer preacher of his denomination. He became interested in educational work, and was one of the founders of Monmouth College, Ill. His wife, Elizabeth, preceded him to the better land in 1862, he following her in 1872. He was an earnest and zealous preacher, and a man who walked close to his highest ideals. At the age of thirteen James M. White left Knoxville and spent a year on a farm in Mahaska county, going then to Ringgold county, Iowa, where he clerked for an uncle, and where he began to learn the carpenter’s trade at the age of eighteen. Possessing considerable mechanical skill, he took keen pleasure in his work, a fact which insured his success, and added an element of interest unknown to the unwilling tradesman. In 1878 he located in Walton, Harvey county, Kans., where he worked at his trade with considerable success, until the westward fever unsettled his plans.
In the spring of 1886 Mr. White went to Colorado Springs, Colo., and soon afterward to Green Mountain Falls. He then became identified with the construction department of the Denver & Fort Worth Railroad Company in Texas, afterward working at building and contracting in Albuquerque, N.M. At the coal camp of Serrillis he constructed a number of buildings, and in 1891 removed to San Francisco, the same year reaching Winters in time to witness the devastation wrought by the earthquake at that town. At the opening of the government land he located in Tres Pinos, San Benito county, a favorable location for a builder, as comparatively little had as yet been accomplished there. In 1896 he made a trip to Cook's Inlet, Alaska, spending about seven months in mining and prospecting, but not gaining a very favorable impression of the country. That he was mistaken was demonstrated almost immediately upon his return, when the announcement of the discovery of gold was spread broadcast over the land, and people began to pour into the ice-bound region. However, the rigors of the climate had disillusioned Mr. White for further residence in the far north, and he left to his more trusting brethren the task of unearthing its treasure.
In Gilroy, Mr. White married Minnie Dryden, daughter of Rev. D. A. Dryden, a pioneer Methodist Episcopal clergyman of Gilroy. Rev. Mr. Dryden came to California about 1852, bringing with him a desire to benefit the condition of the miners, among whom he preached and worked for many months. He eventually settled in Gilroy, where he was well and favorably known, and from which headquarters he organized several churches in different parts of California. Mr. White is a prominent fraternalist, being identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Aid. He is a genial, approachable man, public spirited and generous, and popular with his employes and the business men of the city.
Transcribed
9-30-15 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source:
History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 801-802. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marilyn R.
Pankey.