Percival Leonard White

 

Percival Leonard White, proprietor of the Club Stables, Oakland, was born in Lancaster, Tasmania, May 7, 1866, a son of Wilson and Emma Elizabeth (Rollins) White.  The father, born in Ireland in 1831, received a superior education and in young manhood went to Australia on a vessel of which his father was the captain.  He there engaged in mining and in time became owner of considerable property in that line.  The mother was born in England in 1837; and they were married in Tasmania in 1857.  In 1872 they came to California, and Mr. White engaged in the grain-bag importing business in San Francisco.  With others he formed the California Jute Mill Company, whose factory is located in East Oakland, handled the product in the San Francisco market, and was one of the directors of the company from its organization to his death, May 13, 1888.  Mrs. E. E. White survives him; and eight of their nine children are living, in 1891:  Emma Elizabeth, the wife of W. H. Pollard, a merchandise broker of San Francisco; Amy E. residing with her mother in this city; William W., not engaged in active business; Florence Eva, the wife of Levans N. Cobbledick, a painter and paper-hanger of this city; Hubert, a dealer in flour, grain, hay, wood and coal, on Eleventh street, Oakland, under the style of H. White & Co.’ P. L., the subject of this sketch; Alfred Walter, a clerk for the Alta Insurance Company in San Francisco; Ethel Helvise, still going to school.

 

P. L. White, brought up in this city from the age of six, was educated in its schools, including a course in a business college, and at the age of sixteen became a clerk for his father in San Francisco and remained so engaged some four years.  Entertaining a preference for his present line of business he purchased the Grand Central Stables at the northwest corner of Twelfth and Webster streets in this city, April 18, 1887, conducting it until its destruction by fire August 28, 1889, with a loss of about $5,000.  Having the good fortune to save his stock of horses he housed them at his mother’s home stable in East Oakland, while the present building, known as the Club Stables, was being put up by her for his use.  It is located on the northeast corner of Fourteenth and Webster, with a frontage of 102 feet on the former and a depth of 132 on the latter street.  It has good air and light throughout and first-class sewerage, making it a remarkably healthy building; is conducted by Mr. White as a boarding, livery and sale stable, and commands an excellent patronage.

 

Mr. P. L. White was married in this city March 18, 1890, to Miss Hattie Raubinger, born in San Francisco, in 1870, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Raubinger, both living in that city, in 1891.