OTHER BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES: 1879 1889 1903 1911 1930 Source: THE PAST AND PRESENT of VERMILION COUNTY, ILLINOIS - ILLUSTRATED - Published:  Chicago The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1903 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z                                                                                                           WILLIAM WHITE is now living on section 5, Newell township, and was born in Blount township Mar. 20, 1830.  Among the early settlers and prominent men of Vermilion was his father, James White, now deceased.  He married Nancy Wiles and both were natives of Switzerland county. Indiana.  They took up their abode in Vermilion county, Illinois, when many red men still lived in this section of the state, the prairies were covered with the native grasses and in the forests the trees stood in their primeval strength.  Deer roamed among the trees or over the prairies and there were many prairie wolves.  The family arrived in a covered wagon after having forded the rivers and swamps and here they settled in the midst of a barren wilderness.  He entered government land and erected a log cabin with a stick and clay chimney.  The wolves often gathered around this pioneer home making the night hideous with their howling.  Indians often visited them but were friendly.  James White was a great hunter and shot many deer and even after game began to get scarce in this locality he would go miles to hunt.  He saw Chicago when it was but a mere hamlet and many times drove his ox-team to that market, fording rivers and traveling over the sloughs which cut up the country, making the land of little value until it had been drained.  Upon the way he would camp out at night.  He frequently had his son William ride the ox in front which was harnessed up for the purpose.  James White cut down many a forest tree in preparing his land for cultivation and he broke the prairie with oxen, using six to nine yoke to a breaking plow.  He lived to see the whole country developed from an unsettled wilderness to one of the most highly cultivated farming districts in this great state dotted here and there with thriving towns and villages and a city of which the inhabitants have every reason to be proud.  He was often heard to say that he and a friend swam nearly every stream between old Denmark and Chicago.  At the birth of each of his children he would go on a hunt fur a deer and when his son William was born he brought home both a deer and a wild goose.  Many times he trampled upon rattlesnakes, never knowing that they were dangerous.  He served as a soldier in the Black Hawk war as did also Langford Wiles, the father of Mrs. William White.  James White lived to the age of eighty-six years, dying in June, 1887.  In his family were fourteen children, ten of whom reached adult age and reared families of their own, while four died in infancy.  The following are yet living, namely: Mrs. Mary Shafer, of Nebraska; William Langford, of Blount township; Mrs. Robert VanVickle, of Blount township: Silas and Richard, who are living in the same township; Thomas, a resident of Minnesota; and James, of Blount township.      William White, the second in order of birth, acquired his education in the early subscription schools which he attended during the winter seasons and in the summer months he worked on a farm.  From the time he was ten years of age he followed the plow to which a team of oxen was hitched.  He often plowed with a wooden mold board and afterward with a single shovel plow, while the harness had a single line. He planted corn by hand, cradled the grain and bound his wheat by hand. He also assisted in dipping candles until the candle molds came into use and at times he saw a turnip hollowed out and in this was placed a greased rag.  It was then lighted and served for a parlor lamp.  In the father's family flax was used for making cotton clothing and thread and the wool was spun and woven into cloth for the winter clothing, spinning wheels forming a part of the furniture of every household.  Many times Mr. White assisted his mother in that work.  He can also remember the days when the girls would carry their shoes to church, wearing them only during the service and then returning barefooted in order to economize because only one pair of shoes was allowed to each person for a year.  People rode to church on horseback, sometimes as many as three people sitting upon a sheepskin upon a single horse.  William White owned the last yoke of oxen used in the neighborhood.  It was a splendidly yoked team, weighing forty-seven hundred pounds, but at length he sold these animals, keeping the yoke, however, as a relic of early days.      Mr. White was united in marriage to Elizabeth Wiles, who also came of a pioneer family.  She was born in Blount township March 20, 1840, a daughter of Langford and Mary (Cassat) Wiles.  Two children have been born unto Mr. and Mrs. White.  Mary was married in 1885 to Alfred Inglesby, a farmer of Blount township, and they have nine children, six sons and three daughters.  Cordelia Edna is the wife of Ed. Neff and they were married in 1900.  They have a little daughter, Iva E., ten months old, and their home is in Blount township.  Mrs. White was reared upon a farm and many a day has dropped corn, following the plow. For seven weeks when she was two years old her mother was left all alone with her and a brother, while the father made a trip to Missouri.  Some boys tried to scare her mother with dogs, but although she was alone with her young children she never flinched nor showed any signs of fear.  When our subject settled on the eight mile prairie there was not a house within miles. They lived in pioneer style, cooking over a fireplace, but with the advancing years they have acquired all the comforts and conveniences that have been introduced.  Mr. White now owns a valuable farm of one hundred and twenty acres on section 27, Blount township, and one hundred and fifty acres on section 8, a part of this being covered with timber.  He also has other lands in Newell township.  He and his wife and youngest daughter are members of the Baptist church, while the others are members of the Christian church, and in his political views he is a Democrat.  He has served as commissioner of highways and as a school director for many years.  He is now living retired in the edge of Blount township, his home being in Newell township. Source: The Past & Present of Vermilion County, Illinois - The S. J. Clarke Publ. Co, Chicago - 1903 - Page 317 NOTES:

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