My Genealogy Hound

DAVID WHITE, a well-to-do farmer of Cincinnatus township, is a son of David and Tamor (Waters) White, and was born April 9, 1817, in the town of Willet, this county.

David White, Sr., was a native of Westchester County, N. Y., but removed at an early day to what is now the town of Willet, afterwards moving to Cincinnatus, where he lived for the rest of his life, and became a very prosperous farmer, owning at the time of his death 230 acres of land. He was a farmer all his life, his success attesting to the superiority of his methods and his indefatigable industry.

David White, the subject of this biography, was educated in the schools common to that time, having very poor opportunities for securing an education. He had to go two miles to reach the building in which the school was kept. If the young people of to-day, with all their advantages, could see the inside of one of those primitive schools, and know the methods used by those early teachers, they might well wonder at the intelligence and ability displayed by the preceding generations. Their knowledge consisted not so much probably in “book learning,” as in a sturdy self-reliance, shrewd business instinct, and an ability to battle with the world and overcome its obstacles. Mr. White was reared on his father’s farm, which he still occupies. He has made agriculture his life work, and has added to the original farm until he now owns 450 acres of good farm land, and is one of the wealthy, influential men of the county.

Mr. White married Sarah Briggs, a daughter of John Briggs. They were the parents of four children: John, Jane, James, and an infant. Of these children James alone is living. Mrs. White was called to her reward, September 7, 1891, leaving a wide circle of friends, who deeply deplored her death. Mr. White is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a conscientious Christian gentleman and prominent citizen of Cortland County.