From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
Joseph White and his wife, Sara Miller White, plus four of their five children came to Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas, in 1850. Edwin Miller White, their youngest son, wrote for a farm magazine article that “he moved to Lancaster from Fort Madison, Iowa, in 1850 when he was four years old.” They had lived in Fort Madison, Lee County, Iowa, for at least ten years since Joseph White and family appeared on the 1840 U.S. Census as living in Lee County, Iowa, with two boys. They are also on the 1850 U.S. Census in Lee County, Iowa, but with five children: four boys and one girl.
Joseph White was born 10 June 1811 in Missouri, and Sara Miller White was born in Kentucky or Missouri. The children of Joseph and Sara Miller White are as follows: 1) William White born 1833 in Iowa. 2) Henry White born 1835 in Iowa. 3) John Thomas White born 19 July 1840, Ft. Madison, Iowa, died 19 January 1921, buried “Old” Bethany Cemetery, Godley, Texas. 4) Edwin Miller White born 15 June 1846, Ft. Madison, Iowa, died 17 September 1938, buried Petersburg, Texas. 5) Emmalissa White born June, 1850, Ft. Madison, Iowa.
When the family moved to Texas in 1850, William White elected to remain in Fort Madison, Iowa, since he was seventeen years old; but Joseph and Sara moved the rest of their family to a one hundred and sixty acre farm located three miles north of Lancaster, Texas, just north of the intersection of current roads Wintergreen and Blanco. Family members state that Joseph paid fifty cents (50¢) per acre for the land. The 1855 Tax Roll for Dallas County lists Joseph White’s property as follows: “160 acres @ $670 tax value, original Grantee William Newton ‘on what stream?’ 5 miles; 2 horses @ $200; 10 cows @ 185; money at interest @ $400; True Value $1425.”
During the Civil War, 1861-1865, three of the boys fought for the Confederacy as follows: 1) Henry White joined the Fifteenth (15th) Texas Infantry. 2) John Thomas White joined the Twenty-second (22nd) Texas Cavalry Regiment. 3) Edwin Miller White joined the Benavides Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Henry died the first year he was in the war, 20 June 1862, whereas John Thomas and Edwin Miller returned to Lancaster, Texas, at the close of the war in 1865. Both men soon married Lancaster area girls.
John Thomas White married O’Della Mosier 3 May 1866 in Lancaster. Dell had lived with her parents, Enoch and Catherine Myers Mosier, on a farm in the Wilmer-Hutchins area. Dell was one of the fourteen children of Enoch and Catherine and was born 13 April 1838 in Des Moines, Iowa. Enoch and his family had moved to Dallas County, Texas, in the 1850’s from Iowa, also.
John Thomas and Dell White had seven children as follows: 1) Henry Webb White born 3 March 1867 in Lancaster, Texas, died 16 November 1933, buried Godley, Texas. 2) Katy Bell White born 4 July 1868 in Lancaster, Texas, died 6 April 1942, buried Granbury, Texas. 3) Josephine White born 12 January 1870 in Iowa or Indiana, died 3 October 1870. 4) Charles Thomas White born 2 March 1874 in Godley, Texas, died 9 October 1954, buried Tolar, Texas. 5) Perry Lee White born 30 May 1877 in Godley, Texas, died 6 July 1964, buried in Godley, Texas. 6) Effie Dell White born 5 May 1881 in Godley, Texas, died 11 December 1953, buried in Hope, Arkansas. 7) Ona Irene White born 14 May 1884 in Godley, Texas, died 25 January 1968, buried Waco, Texas.
John Thomas and Dell White left Lancaster, Texas, and went to Iowa or Indiana for a short period of time but on 23 September 1872 John Thomas purchased one hundred sixty aces of land in Johnson County located just north of “Old” Bethany community and due east of present-day Godley, Johnson County, Texas. He continued to purchase land throughout north Johnson County plus additional land contiguous to the original plot where he reared his family.
O’Della “Dell” Mosier White died 18 August 1906; John Thomas died 19 January 1921, and both are buried in the “Old” Bethany Cemetery near the original land purchase.
Edwin Miiller White married Almeda Ellafare Lavandar on 4 January 1866 in Lancaster. Ellafare was the daughter of Archibald M. and Sara L. Lavendar. She was one of ten children and was born 20 March 1849 near Red Oak or Lancaster. The Lavendar farm was two miles northeast of Lancaster.
Edwin and Ellafare White had six children as follows: 1) Henry A. White born circa 1868 in Dallas County, Texas, died 1944, buried in Fresno, California. 2) Evelyn Mae White born 19 March 1870 in Ellis County, Texas, died 3 May 1960, buried in Abilene, Texas. 3) Nettie Blanche White born 30 November 1871 in Lipan, Bosque County, Texas, died 11 April 1967, buried in Petersburg, Texas. 4) Mary Ella White born 26 June 1873 in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas, died 4 April 1925, buried in Post, Texas. 5) Sara Alta White born 3 August 1875 in Ellis County, Texas, died 19 December 1912, buried in Petersburg, Texas. 6) John Edwin White born 26 November 1878 in Bosque County, Texas, died 19 May 1957, buried in Petersburg, Texas.
In 1890 Edwin Miller and Ellafare White moved their family to Hale County where they founded Petersburg, Texas, just northeast of Lubbock. In 1895 Edwin was appointed Postmaster and he retained this appointment for eighteen years in conjunction with running a general store in Petersburg. Ellafare died 24 February 1934 and Edwin Miller died 18 September 1938. Both are buried in the Petersburg Cemetery.
Emmalissa White married Foster C. Harris on 22 May 1867 in Lancaster. Later she married Ben Staley who died in 1912 according to family records. No other information is known of Emmalissa White Harris Staley.
Sara Miller White, Joseph’s first wife, and mother of William, Henry, John Thomas, Edwin Miller, and Emmalissa White, died during the latter years of the Civil War. At this time it is not known where she is buried. Joseph White remarried 22 June 1865. He married Sara Heath, who lived with her parents, Chris and Patsy Heath, on a farm in Cedar Hill, Texas. Sara was the niece of Zedediah Heath who lived on the next farm. She was born in 1831 in Indiana. Joseph and Sara Heath White had two children as follows: 1) Jeremiah White born 1867 or 1868, killed while traveling to Lancaster from Wichita Falls. 2) Robert S. White born 29 March 1870, died 20 August 1899, buried Edgewood Cemetery, Lancaster, Texas.
Very little is known regarding Jeremiah White other than he lived in Wichita Falls, Texas, and while on a trip to see his family in Lancaster, he was killed.
Robert S. White married Martha Melinda “Mattie” Rogers who lived with her parents on a farm a few hundred yards north of Joseph White’s farm. Mattie’s father was Russell Rogers. Robert and Mattie had two children, both born in Joseph White’s original home: 1) Charley Robert White born 18 June 1892 in Lancaster, Texas. 2) Estelle White born 23 May 1898 in Lancaster, Texas.
Charley Robert White married Fannie Slater and had four sons: Robert Lance White, Paul L. White, Charles Ray White and Carl Webster White. Paul and Carl lived on Blanco Road in Lancaster, Texas, just a few hundred yards north of Joseph White’s home.
Joseph lost Sara Heath White in the early 1880’s, and he married Mrs. Martha J. Anderson Denton about 1885. Martha J. White and Robert S. White, along with other family members, buried Joseph White on 15 August 1889 in the Rawlins Cemetery in Lancaster, Texas. Martha J. White died 8 February 1892 and is buried next to Joseph in Rawlins Cemetery.
Joseph White’s homeplace burned to the ground about 1937 or 1938 and the property remains untouched since that time.
Five great-great grandchildren of Joseph White have moved back to Dallas County and still reside in the area: 1) Mary Beth Martin Inman, whose great grandfather was Edwin Miller White, lives in Garland, Texas. 2) La Donna Dunavant Meador, whose great grandfather was Edwin Miller White, lives in Hutchins, Texas. 3) James Ernest Pascall, whose great grandfather was John Thomas White, lives in Dallas, Texas. 4) Lloyd White, Jr., whose great grandfather was John Thomas White, lives in Dallas, Texas. 5) Sidney W. White, whose great grandfather was John Thomas White, lives in Dallas, Texas.
By Lloyd White, Jr., Dallas
