BIOGRAPHY: Stephen V. White; Brooklyn, Kings co., NY surname: White, Beecher, Allen, Chandler, Stanish, Alden, Hopkins submitted by W. D. Samuelsen *********************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ny/nyfiles.htm *********************************************************************** A HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME BY PETER ROSS, LL. D. THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK AND CHICAGO COPYRIGHT. 1902 STEPHEN V. WHITE In studying the lives and characters of prominent men we are naturally led to inquire into the secret of their success and the motives that prompted their action. Success is a question of genius, as held by many, but is it not rather a matter of experience and sound judgment? For when we trace the careers of those who stand highest in public esteem we find in nearly every case that they are those who have risen gradually, fighting their way in the face of all opposition. Self-reliance, conscientiousness, energy and honesty are the traits of character that insure the highest emoluments and greatest success. To these may we attribute the success that has crowned the efforts of Mr. White. Stephen Van Culen White was born in Pittsboro, Chatham county, North Carolina, August 1, 1831. His father, Hiram White, married Julia Brewer, and in September, 1831, the parents removed from North Carolina to Illinois, where they spent their remaining days, the father passing away in 1860 and the mother in 1868. Mr. White traces his ancestry back to David White, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to what is now Wilmington, Delaware, about the year 1720. His son Charles was born about 1727, and became the father of Stephen White, whose birth occurred in 1751. The last named was the father of Hiram White, who was born August 16, 1799, and became the father of our subject. He was a Baptist in his religious belief and was opposed to slavery. During the Nat Turner uprising in 1831 he defied the sentiments of the community in which he lived in North Carolina, refusing to do police duty to guard against difficulties with the slaves, and for this he was obliged to leave the state. He took his family by wagon through Tennessee and Kentucky and settled in Illinois. In the family were two sons and a daughter. One of the former, Nathaniel Brewer White, died in Florida, in the year 1888. The daughter, Jane Elizabeth Allen, is now living in St. Louis. From an, early age Mr. White, of this review, manifested special fondness for books. He attended the Hamilton primary school of Otterville, Jersey county, Illinois, and afterward entered Knox College. being graduated in that institution on the 22d of June, 1854. Determining to make the practice of law his life work, he began reading with the firm of Brown & Kasson, of St. Louis. He worked on the Missouri Democrat, now the Globe Democrat, and was admitted to the bar on the 4th of October, 1856. In December of that year he removed to Des Moines and opened an office for the practice of his profession. In 1861 he successfully defended the first treason case ever tried in the state. In 1864, during the illness of the United States district attorney, he took his place in the trial of several civil and criminal cases. He continued his practice in Des Moines until January, 1865, when he removed to New York city and for two years was a member of the firm of Marvin & White, Wall street brokers. During the succeeding twenty-five years be engaged in business alone, at which time he formed a partnership with Arthur B. Claflin and F. W. Hopkins, under the firm name of S. V. White & Company. In 1887 Arthur S. Claflin withdrew from the firm, and in 1891 S. V. White & Company failed, Mr. White's entire fortune having been swept away. Knowing his great ability and his incorruptible honesty, his creditors released him in full and permitted him to continue on the floor of the exchange. Eleven months after his readmission to the New York stock exchange he had paid in full, with interest, his indebtedness of nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For many years he was the chief operator in Delaware, Lackawanna & Western stock, which made him well known on Wall street. His business affairs have ever been conducted in the most straightforward manner and he enjoys the unqualified confidence of all with whom he has been associated. Soon after his removal to Brooklyn Mr. White became a warm personal friend of Henry Ward Beecher, and was the treasurer and president of the board of trustees of Plymouth church. Though his business interests have been extensive and have made heavy demands upon his time and attention, he has ever found time to devote to the work of the church and has contributed liberally to advance its interests. He was one of the founders of the American Astronomical Society, and for twenty year owned the largest private telescope in America. It is the popular opinion that a Wall street broker has time for nothing but money making, but through a long period Mr. White has spent a considerable portion of his time in following . the almost mystic courses of the stars. He is a man of scholarly attainments, whose researches have been carried far and wide into the realms of scientific investigation, and at the same time he is familiar with the best works of literature, reading Latin and Greek works in the original text. He is a fluent speaker. and many beautiful and valuable prose and poetic works have come from his pen. He made a translation of Dies Irae, which has been favorably commented upon. As an indication of his ability and as a writer and orator we quote the following, for it also bears directly upon the scenes of his life work: "Upon the occasion of the retirement of Edmund Clarence Stedman, the writer, as a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the 15th of February, 1900, his friends and fellow members of the exchange honored him by presenting to him a silver loving cup. Never before in the history of the exchange has a retiring member been thus honored. At three o'clock in the afternoon, in the board room of the exchange, about one hundred of Mr. Stedman's associates gathered around him and S. V. White, a prominent Brooklyn member, presented the loving cup." Mr. White said: "I feel it a great honor, Mr. Stedman, to have been called upon to voice the love of a thousand men who are compelled to sever their business relations with you to-day. I have been selected through their partiality, - perchance from our long connection of thirty-one years as fellow members; perchance it is because of our abiding friendship, which has never known a break, - but from whatever cause, the honor is mine. "Clarence, you and I have grown old together. I must be permitted to speak plainly for once. I must emphasize one fact, in justice to you and in justice to me. Your dual life as financier and litterateur is unique among men. Your friends have met you daily for months and years. You seemed ever with us - ever in this busy whirl. But at the same time you have walked and wrought in an ethereal world. "In studying your diverse walks I am reminded of a night that I spent upon Mount Washington, and in the morning, thousands of feet below us, there was a sea of clouds, absolutely impenetrable and filled with mist and fog. Above, all was clear and serene, and I saw the 'crimson streak on the ocean's cheek grow into the great sun.' All above us was brightness; all below us was mist; and so in the two departments of your life you have breathed the empyrean and you have drudged with us in the mire. "Your literary labors have been exhausting and exhaustive. Away back in 1869 you wrote 'Pan in Wall Street' and 'Israel Freyer's Bid for Gold;' since then you have given the world 'The Victorian Poets' and 'Poets of America;' you have published 'Victorian Anthology' and 'American Anthology;' you have edited Poe in ten volumes and American Authors in eleven, and you have edited newspapers and written for the magazines in ceaseless labor. No other man has done the same. Whittier, the poet of the people, never parted from his muse, and the distant roar of the Atlantic soothed him by night and the flowers and bees and birds inspired him by day. "The author oi 'Thanatopsis' wrote that view of death while yet in college, and his later works outside of his editorial field were few and far between. Bayard Taylor gave up literature before he took up statecraft. Longfellow and Lowell are said to have lived at ease on ancestral patrimony, while Holmes note as a pastime to a medical practice. To you it was reserved to be at once banker and poet and to achieve success in both. "Clarence, when we roughed it together on this floor we never forgot for a moment that you lived in another realm. We had improved on the herdsmen of Admetus, When Apollo dwelt with them they did not know him as the sun god. But all through our work here we were 'on to your curves' in another sphere, and a jaunty boutonniere of laurel in memory of the lamented Daphne was tossed you in our minds day by day as you worked with us. And now I am about to do an act which brings me in touch with a great poet, whom we have mourned together. "To be known as the friend of Whittier's friend brings an honor to one as closely as did the returning Hibernian who came from Boston to Brooklyn, after having been introduced to John L Sullivan. His companion met him with a vigorous grasp, saying, 'Put it right there, Denny; let me shake the band that shook the hand of Sullivan.' And so it can at least be said that Whittier and I have dedicated something to a mutual friend. In 1857 Mr. White was married to Eliza Matilda Chandler, of Staunton, Illinois, a daughter of Hiram Chandler and a granddaughter of Joseph Chandler, who was at his father's side in the battle of Bennington when the latter was killed. He bore the name of Benjamin Chandler. Mrs. White is of the eighth generation in descent from Miles Standish and from John Alden and his wife Priscilla. Unto Mr. and Mrs. White have been born two children: Jennie, who is the wife of Franklin W. Hopkins, a banker and broker, and they have two children, Elsie White Hopkins and Stephen V. White Hopkins; and Arthur, a stock-broker, who married Margaret Beecher, a daughter of Colonel Harry Beecher, of Brooklyn, and a granddaughter of Henry Ward Beecher. They have two children, - Dorothy and Stephen Van Culen. In his political views Mr. White is a stalwart Republican, recognized as one of the leading members of the party. He was a member of congress from a Brooklyn district in 1887-9, and for some years prior to that time served as a park commissioner. He takes a deep and active interest in everything pertaining to the public welfare, withholding his support from no movement or measure calculated to advance the material, social, intellectual and moral progress. A member of the Plymouth church of Brooklyn, he has served as the treasurer and a trustee for over thirty years. He has been a trustee of the Polytechnic Institute from 1884 until the present time, and for more than a third of a century has been a life member of the Brooklyn library. Socially he is a valued representative of the Union League, Hamilton, Lincoln and Brooklyn Clubs. He has never permitted the acquisition of wealth to affect in any way his actions toward those less successful than he, and has always a cheerful word and pleasant smile for all with whom he comes in contact.