Justice William Henry White (1842-1914) 

             The Seattle Daily Times on the day of his funeral, April 29, 1914, wrote, “No man in the State of Washington stands higher than does William H. White”.  That day nine branches of the King County Superior Court adjourned so that all the judges could salute the man who “more than most” brought law and justice to the wild Northwest.

Judge White championed causes he believed would enhance Washington’s future.  Of premier importance was his nomination in 1884 to go and convince the US Congress that Seattle should become the Western Terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.  His tremendous success was an impetus to finish the Cascade branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

In February of 1886, unruly mobs in Seattle rioted and tried to force the Chinese (many had come to build the railroad) on to ships and out of Seattle.   Judge White ran to the docks and confronted the police who refused to control the mobs.  He managed to sound the alarm to the Volunteer Home Guard, who brought about order.  Without White’s persistence, terrible riots would have marred our State history.

Judge White was prominent in persuading the people of Seattle to build a large central school to raise the status of education.  He contributed a part of his Avondale homestead for Avondale’s first school.

Judge White was a leading proponent of the Cedar River water system.

In 1898 Judge White married Emma, the daughter of early pioneer daughter of Luke McRedmond.  Together they built and ran the Hotel Redmond on the original Luke McRedmond homestead, which is now Redmond’s Town Center.   Prominent visitors from all over the U.S. came to talk to the Judge at the hotel including President Howard Taft, William Jennings Bryan, Sam Hill, Percy Rockefeller, and President Teddy Roosevelt.

Judge White’s stature, oratorical skills, shocking white mane of hair and his imposing presence on his white horse as he campaigned throughout King County in 1884 earned him the lasting nickname “War Horse Bill”.

His arrival as a judge to Washington Territory in 1871 was only the beginning of a long judicial career.  His many other offices in the Territory and the State included Probate Judge, Prosecution Attorney for Washington Territory, Seattle City Attorney, member of the Territorial Legislature 1878-80, and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Legislature.  He was also a member of the last Grand Jury of King County in Washington Territory.  President Cleveland appointed Judge White as US District Attorney for the Territory of Washington from 1885-89.  He was Chairman of the Democratic Party from Washington, which nominated William Jennings Bryan in 1886 in Chicago.  Governor Rogers appointed him a member of the Washington Supreme Court in 1900.  He ran for Superior Court of Washington in 1908 and his platform was that the people, not a few attorneys, should elect judges.   The judges of the Superior Court of King County requested his appointment as Special Prosecutor of King County in 1910 to assist the Grand Jury.

Justice White was active in the Mason’s and was Grand Master of the Masons in the Territory in 1884.  He was a charter member of the Pioneer Association of Washington and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Justice William Henry White was a man who contributed greatly to Seattle and Washington State.


More detailed biography with source notes:

Judge William Henry White – (1842 – 1914) was the son of Thompson and Sarah (FULTON) WHITE  who moved from Pennsylvania to Wellsburg,  Virginia (now West Virginia) where William White was born on 28 May 1842. He was surrounded by the conflicts leading to the Civil War.  Judge White’s father and relatives were adamantly opposed to slavery and several are believed to have assisted the Underground Railroad to free slaves. This shaped his belief in Civil Rights for all. Judge White attended private schools in his hometown before attending the Vermillion Institute in Hayesville, Ashland County, Ohio when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted at Ashland County in the Union Army as a First Sergeant, Company B, 102nd regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry from May 1862.  After three months in the field, he was promoted to First or Orderly Sergeant of his company. His services were in the Army of the Cumberland under Generals Buell, Rosecrans and Thomas. He received a shot that broke his leg  in an engagement with General Forest’s Cavalry at Athens, Alabama in the fall of 1864. He was captured by the enemy, held as a POW for 10 days before being freed by his own troops. On account of his wounds, he was mustered out of service at Huntsville, Alabama, in May 1865, after the capture of Jefferson Davis. Judge White's mother, Sarah (Fulton) White died three months after he enlisted in 1862. His younger brother, Albert Wheeler Fulton White died in 1864 at the age of eighteen fighting for the Union Army at the Civil War battle at Piedmont, Virginia.

In politics, Judge White was originally a Republican and helped form the Republican party of Virginia. He walked on crutches to cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln's second presidential election. Not believing in the impeachment of President Johnson and the reconstruction policies of the Republican Party nor the test-oath legislation enacted by West Virginia at the close of the war, he united with the Democratic party and remained with it until 1902 when her returned to the party of his youth.

After the Civil War, William Henry White returned to his home in Wellsburg, Brooke County which became West Virginia. He entered the study of law in the office of Honorable Joseph M. Pendleton, an eminent lawyer and was admitted to the bar by the Court of Appeals of West Virginia in 1868. In 1868, he was elected County Recorder and Judge.

He stated in his application to the Pioneer Association of Washington that he came to the Pacific Coast from Virginia arriving in San Francisco on 12 June 1871, and finally arriving in Washington Territory in July, 1871. It was written that he arrived in the Pacific Northwest without an acquaintance. The population of Seattle numbered 1200 at the time. The leading lawyers were Hon John J. McGilvra, James McNaught, George N. McConahy, Jr., and Colonel Charles H. Larabee. In 1871, he was a Probate Judge in Seattle. Soon after arriving in Seattle, Mr. White entered into a law partnership with Colonel Larabee which continued until 1873. Later he formed the law firm of White & Munday. One of Charles F. Munday's biographies stated that it was the first law firm in Washington - but this hasn't been verified.

In 1876-78, White was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the third Judicial District of Washington Territory, comprising of Thurston and Mason Counties - all of what is now Western WA. The only white person legally executed in Washington Territory west of the Cascades before 1889 was convicted with Judge White as the prosecutor. 

In 1878 he was Seattle City Attorney for one term. source: City of Seattle Archivist.

He was then elected from King County to the Territorial Legislature from 1878-80, and became chairman of the Judiciary Committee. 

In April 1884, at Judge Burke’s speech, Judge “Warhorse Bill” White was nominated to convince Congress that Seattle should become the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The people at the speech passed a hat collecting $729 to send Judge White on this mission. The Tacoma Ledger derisively dubbed him “729 White.” His mission was to urge upon Congress the forfeiture of the unearned land grant of the Northern Pacific Railway. Colonel William F. Prosser in his "His Love of the Puget Sound Country," said: "This commission was executed so well before the committees on public lands of the senate and house that the result was to hurry the completion of the Cascade branch of that railroad."

He narrowly missed being elected to represent Washington Territory to Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1884.

There are conflicting sources of the origin of his nickname "War Horse Bill" White. The "W" of "war" corresponds with William and the "H" in 'horse" corresponds with his middle name of Henry. One newspaper article states: "The term 'War Horse Bill' resulted from his activity in the campaign of 1884 when he started out on a white horse with a pair of old-fashioned saddle bags filled with campaign literature. Before the end of the campaign he visited and spoke in nearly every precinct in King County and was given the credit for the election in that campaign of Charles F. Munday as the "kid" member of the legislature and also the election of Judge J. T. Ronald as prosecuting attorney, both Democrats by majorities of 1,201 and 1,065 respectively while the former Governor John H. McGraw was the same year elected sheriff of King County by a Republican majority of 2,500.

President Cleveland appointed him as U. S. District Attorney for entire territory of Washington from 1885-89.

On February 7, 1886 when mobs in Seattle tried to force the Chinese, many of whom had come to build the railroads, onto ships and out of town, White was immediately called. He ran to the docks and ordered the police to break up the mob. They refused. He ordered the crowd to disperse, and they refused. He then ran to Engine House Number One to sound the alarm and called the call-to-arms to the Home Guard, despite efforts by the mob to stop him. The Home Guard was a group of Seattle men deputized to keep the riot from becoming a revolution. The Home Guard turned out, and stepped in to guard the Chinese. All the Chinese were able to return to their homes.

Out of the social rubble that resulted from the Chinese rose the King County Bar Association. As early as 1870, Seattle lawyers met in informal meetings, usually to eulogize a recently deceased colleagues  and John McGilvra often chaired these meetings. But no formal bar association existed. In 1884, Seattle lawyers W. H. White, Orange Jacobs, Roger Sherman Greene, I. M. Hall, C. H. Hanford, and John J. McGilvra were appointed to formulate plans for a bar association. It was not until 1886, after the Chinese riots, that the association was organized, in part to condemn and censure those attorneys who had participated in the vigilante action against the Chinese. Judge White was among about six men who formed the Washington Bar Association. (source: From Profanity Hill - King County Bar Association's Story by Marc Lampson)    

White was Chairman of the 1896 Washington delegation for the Democrats in Chicago which nominated William Jennings Bryan for his first Presidential nomination. Judge White supported Bryan in his first two campaigns, but his political independence was such that at no time in his career did he sacrifice principle to party, and he broke with the Democrats because he disagreed with the Democratic policy on the Philippine question. 

Later Judge White was named national committeeman for Washington by the Ellensburg Convention, member of the last Grand Jury of King County while it was still a Territory. Judge White supported Governor Rogers in his elections. Later Governor Rogers appointed White to the Washington Supreme Court from June 1900 until January 14, 1901 to fill the unexpired term of Judge M. J. Gordon, who had resigned. White was reappointed again under an act which temporarily increased the number of members of the Washington Supreme Court.

Lists of his Supreme Court opinions for this timeframeNote to other researchers: misprints re: dates Justice White was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court seem to be reprinted from old newspapers.


William Henry White established many firsts: the first justice appointed by a governor to fill a vacancy; the first elected to a short term; the first appointed to a temporary vacancy; the first to return to the high bench after having previously served; and the first Democrat. source: The Washington High Bench: A Biographical History of the State Supreme Court, 1889 - 1991, page 347 by Charles H. Sheldon

In Palmer vrs. Larabee, White wrote that courts "cannot correct what they deem excesses in legislation" but if enactments threatened such fundamental provisions of the state constitution as the right of contract they become "obnoxious to all constitutional restriction, and should not be upheld." He and his colleagues then promptly invalidated the law. source: The Washington High Bench: A Biographical History of the State Supreme Court, 1889 - 1991, page 349 by Charles H. Sheldon


After his retirement as a Justice, he preferred to be called Judge White. The King County Bar passed a resolution commending his service before he retired to Redmond.

The State Constitution was amended in 1910 to allow women to vote. Judge White assisted his wife, Emma McRedmond White when she was nominated without contest on the Democrat’s ticket for County Clerk for King County in 1912. . Widely known as a Democrat, Judge White later became a supporter for President Roosevelt for the later second term and since the organization of the Progressive Party he became an active member of the Moose Movement being elected as a a Republican and Moose Delegate to their 1912 convention. Mrs. White was a member of the 1912 Democratic Delegation from King County to the state convention the same year.

Judge White always championed causes he believed would enhance Washington.  About 1885 or 1889 White donated a half acre of his large homestead in Avondale (which borders Redmond) for Avondale’s first school. He also played a prominent role in persuading the people of Seattle to build a large central school that raised the status of education. He was leading proponent of the Cedar River Water System.

In 1898,he married Emma McRedmond, daughter of Luke McRedmond and they built and operated Hotel Redmond on the original Luke McRedmond homestead, which is now Redmond Town Center. Visitors included William Jennings Bryan, U. S. President Howard Taft, Percy Rockefeller and Sam Hill.  

He announced that he would be a candidate at the September primaries, 1908, for Judge of the Superior Court of King County on the platform that the judges of the courts should be elected by the people and not by a faction of lawyers. (source: May 30, 1908 Memorial Address by Judge White (about 20 pages); I don't know the outcome of this election.

After retirement, in 1910 he served as a special prosecutor of King County under appointment upon the request of the Judges of the Superior Court to assist the Grand Jury in its proceedings.  

White was active in the Masonic Fraternity which he joined in Wellsburg, W. VA. He was chosen as Master of St. John’s Lodge, No. 9 in Seattle; after which on June 6, 1884 he was elected Grand Master of the Masons of Washington Territory. He was past commander of F. A. & M. Seattle, and Stevens Post, Grand Army of the Republic, charter member of the Pioneer Association of Washington, and member Sons of the American Revolution.

The Seattle Daily Times wrote: "No man in the state of Washington stands higher than does William H. White. On the day of his funeral, April 29, 1914 the Seattle P-I reported that the nine branches of the King County Superior Court had adjourned so all the judges could salute the man who more than most, brought law and justice to the wild Northwest. He was buried in Lake View Cemetery next to his sister, Martha Fulton, and later his nephew Walter Sheppard Fulton and wife Emma Francis (McRedmond) White and other family members. 


some sources & notes:

1842 - born Wellsburg, Brooke County, Virginia. (After Civil War it was part of West Virginia.) Thompson WHITE, William's father was a very successful businessman in Wheeling. He owned a steamboat that went as far south as New Orleans on the Mississippi. He owned a hotel. His son William would later build and own the Hotel Redmond which had many notable guests including U. S. Presidents. 

Educated at private schools and at the  Vermillion Institute, Hayesville, Ashland Co., Ohio. 

1862 - left Vermillion Institute to enlist in Union Army, Company B, 102nd regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

Enlisted as a Sergeant on 30 July 1862 at the age of 20
Enlisted in Company B, 102nd Infantry Regiment Ohio on 06 September 1862
Promoted to Full Sergeant 1st Class on 28 February 1863
Mustered out on 15 May 1865 in Huntsville, AL

Source: Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio
. (OHRoster) Published in 1886


From Wooster, Ohio Sesquicentenial Celebration Booklet published June 14-21, 1958 (note: Haysville, Ashland County, Ohio is near Wooster)

The regiment was organized after call of President Lincoln for men to serve for three years. Three companies enlisted in Wayne County by Captains John W. Stout, Jonas O. Elliott, and James E. Robinson. Recruiting began in July 1862. (William H. White enlisted July 30, 1862). In August teh Wayne County companies moved to Camp Mansfield. On September 4, the regiment left for Kentucky and was mustered into service at Covington. September 22nd it was transported in boats to Louisville and from there to Bowling Green, KY. (agrees with Covington, KY muster in roll for William H. White.)

In December it moved to Clarksville, TN where it remained nine months guarding railroads. It was next engaged in defending the line of the Tennessee river from Stevenson to the foot of Seven Mile Island, a distance of fifty miles. The regiment was engaged next in patrolling the Tennessee and Alabama railroad in _______. (missing word at bottom of xerox copy. might have a better copy elsewhere.)

 


September 1864 near Athens, Alabama - He received a shot that broke his leg in an engagement with Forest’s Cavalry at Athens, Alabama in the fall of 1864.  He was captured by the enemy, held prisoner for ten days and later freed by his own troops. 

He walked on crutches to cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln.  

Taught school in Ohio for a year.

1868 - admitted to bar of West Virginia

1868 - elected recorder and probate Judge in Brooke County, W. VA (Democrat) 

1871 - Pioneer Application - He stated that he came to the Pacific Coast from Virginia in 1871, arriving in San Francisco on 12 June 1871, and finally arriving in Washington Territory in July, 1871.

1871- formed partnership with Col. Larrabee

1872 - according to P.T. there is an interesting  advertisement in the Seattle newspaper for Judge White & Col. Larrabee's legal services.

1873-1874 - Judge WHITE was in Pittsburgh, PA

1874-1877 - partnership with Col. Larrabee

In 1876, Judge WHITE was elected prosecuting attorney of the third Judicial District - all of what is now Western Washington north of Thurston and Mason Counties. Within two years, Judge WHITE was elected from King County to the Territorial Legislature, becoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee. 

1877 - new partnership with Charles MUNDAY. Munday's biography stated that White, Fulton and Munday was the oldest law firm in Washington (but I haven't verified this yet). 

1878, City Attorney for Seattle for term of one year.

(unsure which year) Avondale  p. 6, W. H. WHITE at this time was becoming a very popular lawyer. He had received some of his fame from the fact that a couple of years earlier he and Orange JACOBS had been chosen to represent the territory in the trial of the two men who were hanged for holding up and shooting to death George R. REYNOLDS at 3rd and Marion in Seattle. But he too wanted a farm, so he took up a homestead and in a few years he sent for his sister Mrs. FULTON and her son Walter to live on his homestead. Mrs. FULTON has been raised in Virginia and had lived the life of a Virginia lady. Needless to day she found the pioneer life hard. Walter FULTON entered the University of Washington and with Judge WHITE's assistance, books and experience, became perhaps the most famous prosecuting attorney that King County ever had. 

1881, Mrs. FULTON (Judge WHITE's sister) came to Seattle with her son to reside with Judge WHITE who was at that time a young lawyer here. The present city was in the beginning and the family lived first  in the old Butler Cottage, which stood where the Butler Hotel is now located, Second Avenue and James Street. Later when they moved to the corner of Broadway and Madison Street that locality was reached by a trail from the end of Madison Street, which was at ninth Avenue.

(Our Town Redmond pages 25-27) - In 1884, Thomas Provan began work on his second cabin. Provan, John WARE, John Sales and Judge WHITE all built their cabins around the adjoining four corners of their land, at about the confluence of Bear Creek and Cottage Lake Creek. ...By 1889, they were all living full-time in Avondale. - page 29 - About 1895, Judge WHITE donated half an acre of land for Avondale's first school. 

page 27 - the Avondale settlers could walk to Redmond. (one biography I read mentioned he owned 400 acres another said 320 acres, both referred to land in Avondale or Redmond. 

1885 - appointed by President Cleveland as United States District Attorney for the entire territory of Washington. 

About 1886, he helped resolve the Chinese riots in Seattle. 

Out of the social rubble that resulted from the Chinese rose the King County Bar Association. As early as 1870, Seattle lawyers met in informal meetings, usually to eulogize a recently deceased colleagues and John McGilvra often chaired these meetings. But no formal bar association existed. In 1884, Seattle lawyers W. H. White, Orange Jacobs, Roger Sherman Greene, I. M. Hall, C. H. Hanford, and John J. McGilvra were appointed to formulate plans for a bar association. It was not until 1886, after the Chinese riots, that the association was organized, in part to condemn and censure those attorneys who had participated in the vigilante action against the Chinese. Judge White was among about six men who formed the Washington Bar Association. (source From Profanity Hill - King County Bar Association's Story by Marc Lampson) 

Governor Rogers appointed William H. White to Washington Supreme Court.  source: Washington High Bench by Charles H. Sheldon lists the dates of his service on the Washington Supreme Court as 3 Jun 1900 - 14 Jan 1901 with a reappointment 20 Mar 1901 to 1902.

1898 Jun - married Emma McREDMOND (a month after Luke died)

1899 May - first child, Martha born at Butler Hotel in Seattle. The Butler Hotel was a premier hotel built on the site of the Butler Cottage which was probably destroyed in the Seattle Fire of 1889. Judge White first lived at the Butler Cottage when he moved to Seattle in 1871. It was next to Mayor Yesler's saw mill.

1899 - built Hotel REDMOND. Also maintained summer cottage on Lake Washington. 

1911 - retired from law practice

1914 - April 29 - Judge William Henry Fulton WHITE died


Emma F (McRedmond) WHITE and her husband, William H WHITE, joined the Pioneer Association in June, 1911. William identified himself as a lawyer, born in Wellsburg, Virginia on 28 May 1842. He stated that he came to the Pacific Coast from Virginia in 1871, arriving in San Francisco on 12 June of that year, and finally arriving in Washington Territory in July, 1871

Martha Fulton (WHITE) FULTON, sister to Justice WHITE - her obituary mentioned she was President of the "Seattle Day Nursery" and a cofounder of  the "Ladies Relief Society." I bet she was also a member of Pioneer Association of Washington but I don't know for certain.

Dorothy R (White) Hanscom joined the Association in 1966.  Dorothy's sister Martha also belonged to Pioneer Association of Washington.


Newspapers

Martha White Fulton WHITE (Judge WHITE's sister - note Judge WHITE's oldest daughter was born at BUTLER Hotel at same location as Butler Cottage where he had lived. (obituary in part) 

In 1881, Mrs. FULTON came to Seattle with her son to reside with Judge WHITE who was at that time a young lawyer here. The present city was in the beginning and the family lived first  in the old Butler Cottage, which stood where the Butler Hotel is now located, Second Avenue and James Street. Later when they moved to the corner of Broadway and Madison Street that locality was reached by a trail from the end of Madison Street, which was at ninth Avenue.

As soon as Madison Street was cut through as wagon road to Lake Washington, Mrs. FULTON moved to the shores of the lake building a house on what is known as Denny Place, just north of the Firlock Club. She was very fond of the lake, and trees which she planted about her home there now form a beautiful grove well known to residents of that vicinity. (The Firlock Club was located where the present Seattle Tennis Club is located.)

 


Info below is from his brother's biographical sketch. 

William Henry Fulton White was a civil war hero known as "War horse Bill"  and the son of Thompson WHITE and Sarah FULTON. William Henry Fulton White., born May 28, 1842, served as associate justice of the supreme court of the State of Washington, which position he was appointed June 1, 1900. During the Civil War he was a member of Company B, One Hundred and Second, Ohio Volunteer infantry, and was severely wounded at Athens, Alabama, but remained in service until after the capture of Jefferson Davis. He then returned to West Virginia to his West Virginia home, where he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1868. There he held several county offices of a judicial nature, and resigned as recorder of Brooke County in 1870. Two years later, her removed to Seattle, Washington, and in 1876 was elected prosecuting attorney of the third judicial district. In 1879 he was a member of the territorial legislature, and in 1884 was appointed by President Cleveland as United States district attorney, which office he held until the territory was admitted to the Union in 1889. The Seattle Daily Times said of Him: "No man in the state of Washington stands higher than does William H. White. For thirty years he has been a leading member of the bar of this state. He has ever been a consistent Democrat and stands high in the councils of his party."


Judge WHITE - records should be available in:

Daughters of the (Washington) Pioneers, Obituary Scrapbooks. Newspaper clippings of the obituaries of Washington pioneers. Arranged chronologically. Indexed by name of deceased.

Pioneer Certificate Application Files. Compiled by the Washington State Genealogical Society. Application files by people claiming ancestry to a Washington Pioneer (arrived in Washington prior to 1889). The files include copies of vital records documents and other materials documenting ancestry and lineage. Indexed and cross-indexed to include the names of applicants and ancestors.


 

Patentee Name:
WILLIAM H WHITE
Warrantee Name:
Document #: 2797
Misc. Doc. Nr: ---
Indian Allotment Nr: ---
Tribe: ---
US Reservations: No
Mineral Reservations: No
Geographic Name: ---
Metes/Bounds: No
Survey Date: ---
Issue Date: March 29, 1890
Cancelled: No
Authority: May 20, 1862: HOMESTEAD ENTRY-ORIGINAL (12 Stat. 392)
Acres: 153.91
Land Office: SEATTLE
Comments: ---
# Aliquot
Parts  
Sec/
Blk  
Twnshp   Range   Fract.
Sect.  
Meridian   State   Counties   Survey
Nr.  
1 E½SW 30/ 26-N 6-E No WILLAMETTE WA KING ---
2 3 30/ 26-N 6-E No WILLAMETTE WA KING ---
Remarks: LOT 3 OR NWSW QUARTER
3 4 30/ 26-N 6-E No WILLAMETTE WA KING ---
Remarks: LOT 4 OR SWSW QUARTER

 

 Some land records are obviously our "William Henry WHITE" but some might be another person.

 

WHITE, WILLIAM HENRY WA 05/10/1915   472128  - not ours

 

 

WHITE, WILLIAM WA 05/02/1898 1176 WAOAA 099832 - not ours

 

WHITE, WILLIAM WA 12/30/1902 1302 WAWAAA 040279

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 04/13/1917   577356

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 04/30/1917   582100

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 04/30/1917   582101

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 06/20/1884 1690 WAOAA 065313

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 04/09/1901 17841 WASAA 061864

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 03/29/1890 2797 WASAA 065146

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H WA 05/25/1883 6692 WAOAA 065309

 

WHITE, WILLIAM H HEIRS OF WA 04/22/1914   400102

 

 

WHITE, WILLIAM HEIRS OF WA 08/27/1871 421 WAOAA 081326

 

WHITE, WILLIAM HENRY WA 05/10/1915   472128