Henry S. White

White was born in Red Bank, New Jersey on July 13, 1844,{{Cite web|title=Henry Simmons White (1844-1901) - Find A Grave...|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11804119/henry-simmons-white|access-date=2020-10-30|website=www.findagrave.com|language=en}} to Isaac P. and Adaline (Simmons) White. His grandfather, Esek White acquired an education in New York City where he engaged in business, in addition to running a home farm in Monmouth county. Politically, he was a staunch Whig, while religiously he was a Quaker. He married Ann Bessonet, of a prominent French family, and through this marriage four children were born including Isaac P. White (Henry's father), born in Shrewsbury township, Monmouth County, on April 7, 1804. Issac early in his life was employed as a store clerk in Shrewsbury and subsequently moved to Brooklyn, where he became one of the organizers of Lippincott & White, a wholesale grocery business. On withdrawing from that enterprise, he became a member of Wooley & White, lumber dealers of Red Bank, establishing the first lumber yard in that portion of New Jersey. The enterprise proved profitable from the beginning and they built up a large business. In 1873, White moved to Jersey City, where he retired until his 1876 death. His early political support was of a Whig (like his father), but later in life he joined the Republican party, for which he was an advocate. He was reared in the faith of the Society of Friends a Quaker group, but as his wife was a Presbyterian he attended that church. He was an ensign or third lieutenant in the New York militia for years. Fraternally he was connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as one of its valued members. His wife, Adaline Simmons, was a daughter of Abraham Simmons and was born at Phelps, Ontario County, New York, August 26, 1817, her death occurring at Red Bank, May 7, 1884. They had three children including Henry.{{Cite book|title=The New Jersey Coast in Three Centuries: History of the New Jersey Coast with Genealogical and Historic-biographical Appendix, Volume 2|publisher=1902}} {{PD-notice}}{{cite book|last=Ogden|first=Mary Depue |title=Memorial Cyclopedia of New Jersey|url=https://archive.org/stream/memorialcycloped04ogde/memorialcycloped04ogde_djvu.txt|volume=IV|year=1921|publisher=Memorial History Company|isbn=978-0-265-57542-0}} {{PD-notice}}

White acquired his preliminary education in public schools, and through private tutors at home. He graduated the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City in 1864, but could not receive his diploma, because he had not yet reached the required age of 21. After his graduation he was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States army during the last two years of the Civil war. He returned to the north post war where he spent time in New York City hospitals. In the spring of 1866 he obtained his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He immediately began practicing medicine, and would continue to do so for about two years more. In 1868 he returned to New York and entered the law department of Columbia College, because he decided that the field of jurisprudence would offer him greater opportunities and that the profession would be more congenial than that of medicine. He had previously read law in the office of William Allen Lewis, of Jersey City, and in 1870 he graduated from Columbia and was admitted to the New York bar, and in 1872 he was admitted to the New Jersey bar. He was made a counselor at law in November 1875.

On February 1, 1873, White began a partnership with John Blair when they opened an office in Jersey City. The firm would last until 1878, when they dissolved the partnership, due to Blair's appointment as a member of the state judiciary. White then engaged in a solo practice and gained a vast clientele. Between 1884 and 1890 he operated an additional office in New York City. In 1890, White was appointed by the president the United States attorney for the district of New Jersey,{{Cite book|last=Fitzgerald|title=Manual of the Legislature of New Jersey|year=1912}}{{Cite book|title=Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America: Volume 27|year=1901}}{{Cite book|title=Register of the Department of Justice and the Courts of the United States: Volume 9|year=1891}} a position he held for four years.{{Cite book|title=Official Register of the United States: Containing a List of Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military and Naval Service, Volume 1|year=1893}}

In 1878 Henry married Annie H. McLean, the daughter Judge A. C. McLean, of Freehold. Together the couple had one daughter. Mrs. White was known to be a big part of the New Jersey Historical Society.{{Cite book|title=New Jersey History|publisher=New Jersey Historical Society|year=1923}} Henry and his wife were prominently connected with the Presbyterian Church of Red Bank (the same one to which his parents went).{{Cite book|title=Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America: Part 2|publisher=Presbyterian Board of Publication|year=1923}}

Socially, White was connected with the Masonic lodge of Red Bank and was a prominent representative of Arrowsmith Post, No. 61, G. A. R., of which he served as commander and was commander of the department of New Jersey in 1895 and 1896.

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Category:1844 births

Category:1901 deaths

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:19th-century American physicians

Category:American Freemasons

Category:American people of English descent

Category:American people of French descent

Category:Columbia Law School alumni

Category:New York College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni

Category:Lawyers from Monmouth County, New Jersey

Category:People from Red Bank, New Jersey

Category:American Quakers

Category:United States attorneys for the District of New Jersey

Category:Union army surgeons

Category:State defense forces of the United States personnel