ROBERT WHITE
Robert White, born at Kilmarnock, Ayrshire,
Scotland, August 12, 1835, eldest son of the union of Robert White and Margaret
Hastings, was early deflected from career as a British subject to that of a California
pioneer. His father, Robert White, Sr., with his wife and family, went first to
New Zealand in 1837, but decided to try the country that so suddenly became the
focus of attention throughout the civilized world and arrived in San Francisco
on the schooner Clyde October 24, 1849. After their arrival they took the
lumber from the ship to build their shacks to live in, a quaint and odd
incident in the early life of the city. Where now the steel and concrete
palaces of industry raise their imperious heads, stood little sheds built by
unskilled labor and from wood that had already done it duty and worn out its
life at sea. No obstacle, however, was too much for the spirit of the pioneers,
from the building of an improvised house to the building of a great state.
Young White with all the brilliant daring of his race, was ready for any tilt
with fortune, and began his career as a newsboy in San Francisco, after some
time spent in the mines. After this he was employed by Jerry S. Sullivan and
later went into partnership with Emile Bauer, under the firm name of White and
Bauer. In 1873 the American News Company bought out White and Bauer, Mr. White
remaining as an executive head until his death, July 15, 1904.
On October 23, 1873, Robert White married
Emilie Bauer, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, who came to California with her
parents via the Isthmus of Panama. Francis Bauer, her father, was a musician, a
native of Lorraine, France. He arrived here in 1854, and settled first in
Sacramento. Mr. and Mrs. White and four children: Emile, Fillmore, Robert
Dudley and Walter Hastings, all natives of San Francisco. Emile White is
secretary of the Robert White Company, a family corporation for the purpose of
administering the estate, consisting of valuable realty holdings in San
Francisco. Fillmore White is a dentist of San Francisco. He married Helen
Brune, and is the father of two children, Mildred and Fillmore, Jr. Robert
Dudley is a farmer near San Jose. He married Anna Boyken and is the father of
two children, Dudley L., and Dorothy. Walter Hastings, is a real estate and
insurance man of San Francisco. He married Adele Boyken and they have two
children, Marian and Juanita. The family had the first house on Fillmore
Street, and were among the pioneers who opened and built up the fashionable
quarter of the city known as the Western Addition. Robert White built a
pretentious home at 1253 Octavia Street, San Francisco, for his family in 1885,
which withstood the fire and earthquake of 1906, an hospitable home for his family
and many friends for whom he gave his entire thought and time. He joined The
Society of California Pioneers March 13, 1869, and was director for the years
1883-1884-1885.
The early impulse of his life towards the news field followed Mr.
White through life. He lived to see the American News Company develop into one
of the largest centers of its kind in the United States, catering to the city
and coast, but drawing its supplies from every quarter of the globe. Little do
we dream or guess how much of the public intelligence is created by those who
build up an active news service. Mr. White’s enterprise and foresight were
remarkable throughout his whole career. The spirit of his childhood, when the
state had to be reclaimed almost from the wilderness, never deserted him, but
gave him the incentive to work indefatigably to build up a business which
brought its returns to its organizer and also was a far-reaching means of
broadening and enlightening the public mind. He was always proud to tell the
story of his childhood essay in the large field which afterwards became his
own, and his examples, with others, have long been a stimulus to the lads whose
first taste of education and first taste of money are combined when they cry
the news in the streets.
Louise E. Shoemaker, Transcriber March 15, 2004
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 pages 128-131. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Louise Shoemaker