USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : from 1700 to the present time, Volume II > Part 41
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Mr. White's health was materially improved by the voyage, and on his re- turn he again entered the employ of his former patron and friend, Colonel Carpenter, where he remained until the spring of 1814 when, having raised a company of volunteers, he was commissioned lieutenant in Colonel Dodge's regiment, and took part in the assault and capture of Fort Erie, opposite Buf- falo. While in occupation of the fort, with his command, he was severely wounded by a shell fired from the enemy's redoubt half a mile distant. Soon after his recovery an opportunity occurred for revenging himself on the enemy. A re-
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connoitering party from the British camp was discovered in an adjacent wood, and Lieutenant White was sent with his command to capture or disperse them. He succeeded in capturing the whole party, killing and wounding several before they surrendered. He remained with his regiment until the expiration of their term of service, when he returned home and resumed his studies.
In the spring of 1816 Judge Benjamin Wright was forming a corps for prosecuting the surveys of the Erie canal. Mr. White solicited a position and was engaged by Judge Wright as one of his assistants. During this and the suc- ceeding season he was employed in taking the levels westward from Rome. In this duty he acquitted himself so well that he very soon won the esteem of the chief engineer, between whom and himself there ever afterward existed a firm and unbroken friendship. About this time he made the acquaintance of Gov- ernor DeWitt Clinton, who was highly pleased with his personal qualities and professional abilities. At this early day the knowledge of canal construction among the engineers of the country was very limited, and Mr. White, at the earnest solicitation of Governor Clinton, determined to visit England for the purpose of examining publie works and procuring the most improved instru- ments in use. In the autumn of 1817 he carried out this determination and made a careful examination of the canals of the United Kingdom, traveling for this purpose more than two thousand miles on foot. He returned the next spring, bringing instruments and accurate drawings of the most important structures on those works, and much valuable information for the benefit of the state in the construction of its canals. About this time there was much dis- cussion on the subject of lock construction, some favoring wood, and others stone, or a combination of the two. It was finally decided, however, to build stone locks, using quick-lime mortar for the masonry, and pointing the joints with hydranliv cement, then imported at great cost from England. Mr. White soon discovered a valuable lime rock near the route of the canal in Madison county, which, after repeated experiments, he converted into a cement equal to the imported, and at much less cost to the state. For this discovery he obtained a patent, but permitted its use under the promise of the canal commissioners that a just compensation should be allowed, not only for it, but for his expenses and services while abroad. The commisioners, however, failed to obtain the necessary authority from the legislature to fulfill their promise, notwithstanding the recommendations of the governor and other officers of the state. Governor DeWitt Clinton, in a letter to a committee of the legislature in 1824, said "that Mr. White had been of great use in his operations as an engineer, and that his skill, industry, and integrity in that department furnish strong recom- mendations to the favorable notice of the state." Judge Wright stated before the same committee: "I have no hesitation in saying that the discovery of hydraulic cement by Mr. White has been of incalculable benefit to the state, and that it is a discovery which ought, in justice, be handsomely remunerated." Mr. Flagg reported from the same committee "that Mr. White, a principal en- gineer, had made this discovery after repeated experiments and received a patent in 1820, and that he introduced it at great expense amidst the doubts and fears which operated against its use."
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The canal commissioners, in their report of February. 1820, say: "Between the Sencca and Genesee rivers Canvass White, engineer, had the charge of a party which has been engaged for several months in leveling over and survey- ing different routes for the canal line. These labors he has performed much to our satisfaction, and having presented a view of them to a meeting of our board held in October, at Utica, we thereupon decided in favor of the route originally explored between these rivers in the year 1816." The canal through, and eight miles east of Etica was completed in the fall of 1820, Canvass White being the resident engineer. In 1820 Messrs. Wright (principal) and White (acting) engineer, explored the country thoroughly from Little Falls to the Hudson, and pronounced impracticable the route from Schenectady connecting with the Hudson at Albany, and located the line via Cohoes and Troy. This location was finally fixed upon by Messrs. Wright, Geddes and White. Early in the spring of 1822 Canvass White was sent to lay out the Glens Falls feeder, and in that year he planned and directed the building of the lock and dam between Troy and Waterford, until the Sth of June, when William Jerome took charge. Judge Wright, in a letter to Dr. Hosack in December, 1828, says:
"Here it is proper that I should render a just tribute of merit to a gentle- man who now stands high in his profession and whose skill and sound jndg- ment, as a civil engineer, is not surpassed, if equalled, by any other in the I'nited States. The gentleman to whom I refer is Canvass White. Esq., who commenced as my pupil in 1816 by carrying the target ; he took an active part through that year and through 1817. In the fall of the latter year be made a voyage to England on his own account, and purchased for the state several leveling instruments, of which we stood much in need. He returned in the spring and brought with him much valuable information, which he has use- fully developed. greatly to the benefit of the state of New York. To this gen- tleman I could always apply for counsel and advice in any great or difficult case, and to his sound judgment in locating the line of the canal, in much of the difficult part of the route. the people of this state are under obligations greater than is generally known or appreciated."
Simon Guilford, who was Mr. White's assistant civil engineer. related the following incident : "When that portion of the canal along the Mohawk river between Little Falls and Canajoharie was completed, and the supply of water was turned in, owing to a very porous soil over which a considerable portion of the canal was made, the supply proved inadequate, which was fully realized as the first boat passed. The question was as to how the difficulty was to be over- come. Mr. White replied, 'A feeder must be obtained from the river at this place' (a few miles above Fort Plain), and being asked how long it would take to build a dam across the river. 900 feet long. so as to raise the water nine feet above the ordinary surface. he replied, 'A few weeks.' The dam was com- pleted in sixty days, inclusive of a side-cut and bridge connected with it."
Mr. White's professional success, serupulons integrity, and modest demeanor, in all transactions of life, won for him the enduring esteem of all with whom he was associated. For these admirable qualities of mind and heart he became widely known. and as a consequence frequent and urgent offers were tendered him for engineering services in other states. He continued, however, in the
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active discharge of his duties as an engineer on the Erie canal until it was so nearly completed that his place could be supplied from his assistant engineer, when he succeeded Loammi Baldwin as chief engineer on the Union canal in Pennsylvania. He continued in that position until the latter part of the sum- mer of 1826, when, in consequence of a severe illness contracted while conduct- ing the surveys of the canal west of the Susquehanna river, he returned to Phil- adelphia, and resigned his connection with the company. Meanwhile he had been called to New York to examine the sources of supply for pure and whole- some water for the city. Ile reported that, for the present need of the city, and its probable requirements for twenty years thereafter, a sufficient supply could be obtained from Rye pond and the Bronx river in Westehester county, "but after the city should extend to one-third the surface of Manhattan island, it would be necessary to add the Croton river to their other resources." The report was accompanied with full details, and strongly impressed the city gov- ernment with the importance and feasibility of the project.
While engaged upon these two enterprises he was solicited to take charge of the works of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which were then in course of construction. After making a rapid survey of the ground and the plans of the company he suggested alterations and recommended the employment of Captain Beach as their chief. Mr. White continued as consulting engineer for the Dela- ware and Chesapeake canal, Judge Benjamin Wright being the chief engineer. The success and reported profits of the Erie canal gave an impetus to canal construction in that day, that would have resulted in a system of artificial in- ternal navigation as universal as our present railroad system, could the capital necessary for the purpose have been obtained. Projeets were started in various parts of the Union, and a pressing demand was made upon the time of the few engineers then in the country. The citizens of Hartford conceived the project of improving the navigation of the Connectient river, and the Windsor locks were built by Mr. White as chief engineer. Careful financial men were led away by the prevailing spirit of the time, and large amounts were expended upon impracticable enterprises. Among these was the Farmington canal, con- structed from New Haven to Farmington and then up the Farmington river, "as money could be found to prosecute the work." Mr. White was applied to for plans and surveys, and for an opinion of the value of it when completed ; he furnished the former and remained consulting engineer during the con- struction of the work, but frequently expressed an opinion adverse to the suc- cess of the canal, which ultimately proved correct. In the spring of 1827 he was appointed chief engineer of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, and resumed the construction of a canal along the Delaware river from Easton, Pennsylvania, to navigable waters below. This project had been inaugurated in 1825 for the purpose of increasing the company's facilities for shipping coal from Maunch Chunk to Philadelphia, and a canal one mile in length, with five locks and a large basin at Maunch Chunk, had been built. Mr. White prose- euted the work with such diligence that the first boat passed through the eanal in July, 1829. At that time the Lehigh canal was the most capacious work of the kind yet undertaken in the country, and was considered a bold project. In the summer of 1825 Mr. White was appointed chief engineer of the Delaware
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and Raritan canal, lle organized a party for preliminary surveys and placed it under the immediate charge of John Hopkins, one of the most trusted assis- tants. This work was discontinued in the fall after the location of about twelve miles, and was not resumed again until the spring of 1831. The construction of the canal from the Delaware to the Raritan rivers was attended by many difficulties and met many obstructions, all of which were successfully over- come. In the prosecution of this important work Mr. White always aeknow- ledged with becoming gratitude the generous and wise course of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, who took an active interest in the success of the enterprise. In the autumn of 1834, when this work was nearly completed, Mr. White's health was so much impaired that his physician advised him to seek & more genial climate. Ile sailed soon after for St. Augustine, Florida, where he died within a month after his arrival. His remains were returned to New Jersey and lie buried in the churchyard at Princeton, where his family resided at the time of his death.
Mr. White was personally popular with all who were favored with his ae- quaintance. General Bernard, a French engineer in the service of the United States, remarked of him, "That as a civil engineer he had no superior; his genius and ingenuity were of a surprising magnitude ; his mild and gentle ways, his sweet and amiable temper, his modest and retiring manners, won universal respect and confidence." When the project for the Chesapeake and Ohio canal was first set on foot and an engineer was wanted for its construction, Henry Clay said: "Get Canvass White ; no man is more competent ; no man, more eapa- ble; and while your faith in his ability and fidelity increases, your friendship will grow into affection." Mr. White, in his day, stood at the head of American canal engineers, and his strength lay in his cool, practical judgment. The comprehensive nature of his mind, through which. at a glance, he grasped the salient points of a subject, and his systematic habit of arranging details, en- abled him to accomplish an extraordinary amount of professional work. In stature he was five feet nine and one-half inches, and weighed from one hundred and forty-five to one hundred and sixty-five pounds. The most prominent and striking feature in the general contour of his person was an unmistakable im- press of genius, modesty and amiability.
WILLIAM CLARK YOUNG.
It seems rather strange to chronicle that another grandson of the pioneer White should have been as instrumental in the development of the railroads of the state of New York and adjoining states as Canvass White was instrumental in developing the canals of the state. In faet William C. Yonng, born Novem- ber 25, 1800, and a son of Mary Stone White, a daughter of Hugh White, the pioneer, and who married John Young, the founder of Youngstown, has been as instrumental as any man in the state in the practical development of rail- roading. He received his education in Whitestown, attaining some knowledge of Latin, geometry and surveying. aside from the ordinary schooling of the
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period. At sixteen years of age he was assistant surveyor of the islands of Lake Ontario for the state of New York; the next year a rod man locating the Erie canal and participating in the ceremony of "ground breaking" for the work at Rome, July 4, 1817; the next year he was a cadet at West Point in a class of one hundred and twenty-five members, and graduated mumber twelve in his class in 1822. After four years given to army life he resigned June 30, 1826, and engaged in superintending the locating and constructing of railroads in New York state. In 1831 while making the survey of the Saratoga & Schenectady road, Mr. Young proposed and practically introduced the pres- ent system of supporting car rails on the road-bed, and introduced the use of cross ties in lieu of the stone blocks and foundations which formerly sustained the strip of railroad iron in place; the advantages gained by this method, in expediting the work and lessening the cost of construction, were so obvious that its general adoption was immediate and constituted a marked advance in the history of railroad construction. IIe was subsequently appointed chief en- gineer of construction and superintendent of the Utica & Schenectady road, which he completed after sixteen years of unremitting toil. In 1849 he was made chief engineer of the Hudson River Railroad, which ran between Albany and New York city, and although the original surveys had been made by a man of no less prominence than J. B. Jervis, and on Mr. Jervis' retirement from the position of chief engineer, he had enjoined upon the management that under no circumstances should the line of road be altered, nevertheless the ability, energy and common sense of Mr. Young, together with the estimates showing a less cost, enabled Mr. Young to resurvey and relocate two-thirds of the road. On the completion of the road in October, 1851, Mr. Young was elected president of the Hudson River Railroad Company. Ile resigned the position the following January, as his professional duties in outdoor work were more to his taste than the confinements of routine work in the office. Ile had already spent twenty-one years of his life (from 1831 to 1852) in locating and constructing the three roads above mentioned, aggregating in length about two hundred and fifty miles. In 1852 he was called upon by the president of the Panama Railroad Company to complete that road across the Isthmus of Panama, which he undertook and while there he nearly died of the fever, so he had to withdraw from the isthmus. In 1855 Mr. Young had charge of the western branch of the New York & Western Railroad from Rochester to Buffalo, some two hundred miles of road, and a monthly disbursement of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which he continued in charge of for about two years and then resigned. There were numerous other important railroad surveys with which William C. Young was connected, and it must be taken into consid- eration that in his connection with the building of the Hudson River Railroad from New York to Albany, it was looked upon in his day as the most foolish venture possible, as it was in direct competition with the Hudson river the en- tire distance, the theory being, that railroads might pay in countries where it was impossible to operate canals, but they never could pay in direct competi- tion with waterways. Mr. Young, speaking of his cousin, Canvass White, said : "On his return from England he brought with him the instruments for laying ont canals, the plans and the design for the canal-boats and became the most
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practical man in canal making; and with Judge Wright cooperated in making much of the Eric canal." It is fairly evident from the work of these two men, that one was as instrumental in the developing of the waterways of the state as the other in developing the locomotive steam power of the state. Mr. Young died in December, 1894. having been for four years prior to his death the old- est living graduate of West Point, and entitled by reason thereof to deliver the annual address.
PHILO WHITE.
Another grandson of Ilugh White, the pioneer, was Philo White, who was the son of Philo White, son of the pioneer. He was born in Whitestown. June 23. 1796. and after attaining his early education at Whitestown Seminary, and having spent some years in a printing office in U'tica, he removed to North Carolina in 1820, where he located at Salisbury. Rowan county, and became the editor of the Western Carolinian, which he conducted until 1830, when he was appointed United States Navy agent for the Pacific station. Returning home in 1834. he established the North Carolina Standard at Raleigh, and was elected state printer. Philo White removed to Wisconsin at an early period of its territorial existence and fixed his residence at Racine. He was the editor of several newspapers at different periods. In 1847 he was chosen one of the vouneil of the territorial legislature, and in the following year was elected to the senate of the state legislature. As chairman of the committee of education he shared largely in devising the present system of public instruction in that state. At a later period he acted in the founding of Racine College under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal church of that diocese. In 1852 he was chosen one of the presidential electors of Wisconsin. In 1849 Mr. White was appointed United States consul to the Hanseatic republic of Hamburg. and re- sided there for one or two years. In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce United States minister to Ecuador in South America, and in the autumn of that year went with his family to Quito. the scene of his diplomatic duties; receiving from the president the highest office in his gift, which is literally true, as the geographical location of Quito in the Andes is 10.000 feet above the level of the sea, and there is no other city of national government that is conducted at such a high altitude. Mr. White was a man of medium height. five feet, seven inches, and slight build; remarkably active in his habits; his conversation some- what rapid, but gracefully intoned and full of pleasant recollections and acute observations. Mr. White returned to Whitestown in 1858 and, in 1860, do- nated to the town the original plot of ground which was donated by his grand- father, Hugh White, as a site for a court-house and publie green, which through some technicality of the original deed had reverted to the heirs; and the eiti- zens in addition to accepting the gift placed in the hall an oil portrait of Philo White. He died in Whitestown, February 15. 1883, at the age of eighty-six years.
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FORTUNE C. WILITE.
Another grandson of Ilugh White, the pioneer, was HIon. Fortune Clark White, son of Colonel Daniel Clark White. He was born in Whitestown, New York, July 10, 1787. He was a prominent lawyer in the county of Oneida, having studied law in the office of Judge Jonas Platt, and for nearly half a cen- tury maintained a prominent position in the most brilliant bar west of Albany at that day. IIe was elected the first chief judge of the court of pleas and quar- ter sessions of Oneida county from 1837 to 1843, and attained a high reputa- tion as a jurist and an able expounder of the law.
Endowed with a commanding presence and a proclivity for martial display, he was a member of the New York state militia, serving in two campaigns in the war with Great Britain in 1812, being in command of a company at Sack- et Ilarbor in 1813, and aide-de-camp to General Collins in 1814. He was twice a member of the legislature. IIe died at Whitestown, August 27, 1866, leaving four sous and one daughter.
WILLIAM MANSFIELD WIHTE.
William Mansfield White, son of Hon. Hugh White and Maria Mills Mans- field White, and a great-grandson of Judge Hugh White, the founder of Whites- town, was born in Waterford, Saratoga county, New York, July 8. 1833. Ile was a worthy representative of the Whitestown pioneer, and bore with dis- tinction the ennobling characteristics of his raee. When twelve years of age, he was sent to Galway Academy, then under the charge of Professor Charles Durkee, a leading educator at that time. In the autumn of 1846 he entered the Military School of Professor Kinsley at West Point, where he spent three years. There the drill of body and mind was most thorough, and the morals of the school elevating and religious. Soon after leaving that institution he entered the sophomore class of lIamilton College, from which he was graduated in 1854.
Ilis father owned Sweet Briar Farm in the town of Ossian, Livingston county, New York, and here Mr. White spent his vacations and resided during his early married life. Mr. White was married on January 22, 1863, to Anna Maria, daughter of the late William Constable Pierrepont, of Pierrepont Manor, New York, the ceremony being performed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop De Lancey. She died in Utica, on September 22, 1884. Mr. White came to Utica on the Ist of September, 1882, chiefly to give his large family the benefit of the excellent educational advantages to be had in this section, where his ancestors had fig- ured prominently through a period from its earliest settlement, and near which a part of his boyhood had been spent at Hamilton College. It is a rather eurious coincidence that Mr. White in coming to Utica, in September, 1882, with his five sons and five daughters, arrived ninety-eight years after the original set- tlement of Whitestown by Hugh White, the pioneer, who arrived June 5, 1784, with his five sons. It was but a short time after Mr. White took up his resi-
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dence in U'tica that he was looked upon as one of her leading citizens, and as the most charitable man in Utica. His magnificent physique was a fitting cover- ing for the noble and generous heart it contained. llis nature was that of our highest idea of a nobleman, a man too ennobling to even allow a dishonest thought to enter his mind, and whose sympathy with those afflicted with earthly troubles was so great, that if an idea of their needing assistance reached him, he did not wait to be asked but went out of his way to give it without asking. People quickly came to know him as a broad-minded, progressive, generous and noble man, vigorous and sound in body ; he became identified with various local business interests, and became a guiding spirit in each and all. In January, 1889, he was elected without his knowledge a director in the Second National Bank, and on the death of its president, Edward S. Brayton, he was unani- mously elected to the presidency, a position he held during the remainder of his life Under his management the present handsome block, which is one of the finest banking buildings in central New York, was built in 1893 and 1894, Mr. White being the leading member of the building committee. He was vice presi- dent and one of the organizers of the Utica Pipe Foundry; a director in the Utica & Mohawk Street Railroad Company; a director in the Jefferson County National Bank of Watertown; and from 1871 until his death a director in the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad Company, being one of the old- est officers of that corporation. After the death of his father-in-law, the late William C. Pierrepont, as one of the executors of the Pierrepont estate, he had the active charge and management of this large landed property in northern New York. He was an active member of the Oneida Historical Society, and for several years served as its first vice president. When the village of Whites- town celebrated its centennial anniversary, Jnne 5, 1884, he was selected to pre- side, and aided in erecting a monument on the village green to commemorate the event.
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