Josiah Howe White
From the year 1880, when he became a large landed proprietor of Sonoma county through the purchase of a ranch of about fifteen hundred acres in Vallejo township, until his demise at his residence in Alameda September 23, 1897, Josiah Howe White was inseparably associated with the agricultural, horticultural and material development of the county, whose progress his intelligence and capital aided and whose resources is keen discrimination grasped with unerring intuition. The possibilities of grape culture appealed to his imagination and he planted a vineyard of twenty acres, from which until his death he sold grapes each season with large profits. Stock-raising was also engaged in, the broad meadows furnishing hay of first-class quality, while the pastures gave support for the months of grass. During 1884 he purchased at quarantine in New York a large herd of Holstein Registered cattle, which he exhibited at various fairs and always won prizes. On the ranch he also carried many fine horses from Electioneer-Wilkes stock, at the head of which was Hernani. In addition to the other activities pursued on the ranch a dairy was established with one hundred cows and for years the butter was shipped to Arizona, where the highest market prices were obtained.
The life of this honored citizen began in Westminster, Worcester county, Mass., February 3, 1838, and in that region his early years were happily and uneventfully passed. The common schools gave him his primary education and attendance at an academy completed his course of study. At the age of fourteen years he went west as far as Illinois and visited relatives for eight months, after which he returned to New York state and remained in Jefferson county for seven months. Next he spent two years in Lancaster, Mass. Returning to Illinois during the fall of 1855, he secured employment in the engineering department of the Jacksonville & St. Louis Railroad and continued to fill the same position, until the panic of 1857 practically stopped all construction work. Next he served for one term as surveyor of Jersey county and after he came to California in 1860 he also followed surveying, his practical work being done in and around Sacramento. Next he secured a contract to build seven miles of the Central Pacific Railroad in Nevada.
When the great flood of 1861 broke the levee around Sacramento and immediate steps were necessary for the protection of the city, Mr. White took the contract for the rebuilding and that important task he discharged with marked success. Other contracts in the state kept him busily engaged and from 1864 until 1876 he made his headquarters in San Francisco, from which city he did a large business in surveying. Mining interests also engaged his attention to some extent. During 1877 he became interested in the Contention quartz mine at Tombstone, Ariz., and for years held a position as superintendent, meanwhile developing the plant into a very profitable investment and giving to it a large part of his time. He superintended the building of the quartz mill for that company at Contention City on the San Pedro river. In mines as in survey work his judgment was excellent, his foresight unerring and his decisions prompt and accurate. Nor was he less forceful and efficient when he turned his attention to horticulture and agriculture. There seemed indeed, no line of activity in which he was not interested and for which he did not possess ability in some degree. For several years he served as president of the Sonoma and Marin District Agricultural Society that held its annual fair in Petaluma. These positions he held with characteristic ability. An ardent Mason in fraternal connections, he identified himself with the blue lodge in San Francisco and Mount Olivet Commandery, K. T., at Petaluma, and both of these organizations received the benefit of his philanthropies.
The family of which Mr. White was a member became identified with American history during the colonial and Revolutionary eras and contributed much to the early agricultural growth of New England. His parents, John and Lucy (Howe) White, were natives of Massachussets, the former born in 1800 and the latter in 1806. Mr. White was married at Lakeville, November 14, 1879, to Miss Annie Daniels, who was born at Milton, Saratoga county, N. Y., the daughter of Seneca and Sarah (Starr) Daniels, both natives of that county also. During the early days Mr. Daniels brought stock from New York state to California across the plains, arriving at Sacramento in 1860. On the way Mr. Daniels had several encounters with the Indians, and the first winter was passed in Salt Lake, under the wing of Brigham Young, who gave Mr. Daniels a fine mare that remained in the possession of the family until she died. Mr. Daniels’ herd consisted of fine Devon cattle, which he brought to Oakland and located on one hundred acres of land which he had purchased on the east side of Lake Merritt. In 1864 he traded this property for two hundred and ten acres at Lakeville, where he engaged in raising Devon cattle. Mr. Daniels died in 1876, and in 1880 his widow sold the ranch to Mr. White, thereafter making her home in Alameda, where her death occurred in 1903. Five children were born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. White, as follows: Josiah Howe, Jr., member of the Hall-White Lithographing Company of Oakland; Edwin Dean, of the firm of Brown-White company of San Francisco (he married Miss Edith Lewis of Petaluma and has one child, Edwin, Jr.); Alden Parsons, engaged in the timber business in Amador county; Edith, who graduated from the University of California in 1907; and Helen, who graduated from the Stanford University in 1911, the two last-mentioned now at home. After a life of mutual helpfulness and happiness Mrs. White was left a widow, since which time she has resided at Alameda, where she has all the comforts rendered possible by her ample means and where, surrounded by her children and ministered to by their affection she is rounding out her useful and active life. She still owns and superintends the Lakeville ranch, besides attending to her other interests. In 1904 she built a large residence on the ranch, beautifully located on a hill in the vineyard, a spot which years ago the family had selected as a site for a residence. She has also set out a new vineyard of twenty-five acres of resistant vines.
History of Sonoma
County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
April 29, 2012 Pages 859-861
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