WHITE, John Whitney (1812-1886) and Anna Catherine (1818-after 1885)

John W. White was a Methodist Episcopal clergyman and the oldest brother of James Springer White. Of the five White brothers that survived to maturity, three became clergymen: John Whitney (Methodist Episcopal), Samuel Shepard (Baptist), and James Springer (Seventh-day Adventist). In 1833 John White settled in Ohio, and in the same year he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1834 he was licensed to preach, and he continued in active ministry in Ohio until his retirement in 1874. In 1840 he married Anna Catherine Williams. Their son, John Williams White, subsequently became a professor of Greek at Harvard University.1EGWLM 908.3

The surviving correspondence of John W. White reveals a somewhat ambivalent relationship with James and Ellen White. In letters to other family members John could be dismissive and derisive of James and his Adventist beliefs. On the other hand, it does not appear that John expressed such opinions to James or Ellen but sought friendly relations. He was especially grateful for the way James and Ellen had looked after his parents, John and Betsey White, during the last 10 or so years of their lives when they lived in Battle Creek, Michigan. “May God reward you a thousand fold,” he wrote to James and Ellen after the death of Betsey White in 1871. There are signs that his critical views mellowed with time. “I rejoice to hear that poor sinners are coming to Christ in your midst,” he let James know in 1872, and in 1880 he expressed his admiration for the “contributions of your people to Church, Educational, Missions and Sabbath School Enterprise” that he had read about in a General Conference report. After James's death in 1881 at age 60, John wrote, in a letter to Ellen, of James: “He was a man of wonderful energy, but not of philosophy enough to have grown aged and feeble. … There are some men that can't retire.” John placed Ellen in the same category: “Look at yourself still working. … God bless you, Ellen.”1EGWLM 908.4

See: Almira Larkin White, Genealogy of the Descendants of John White of Wenham and Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1638-1900 (Haverhill, Mass.: Chase Brothers, Printers, 1900), vol. 2, pp. 503, 504; History of Franklin and Pickaway Counties, Ohio, With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches ([Cleveland]: Williams Bros., 1880), p. 432; Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, ed., Universities and Their Sons: History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities, with Biographical Sketches (Boston: R. Herndon Co., 1898), vol. 3, pp. 2, 3; J. W. White to “Sister Anna,” June 1, 1846; J. W. White to “Dear Father,” Mar. 28, 1866; J. W. White to “Dear Father,” Nov. 7, 1866; J. W. White to “Dear Bro.,” Jan. 9, 1871; J. W. White to “Dear Bro.,” Jan. 22, 1872; J. W. White to “Dear Bro.,” Jan. 16, 1880; J. W. White to “My Dr. Sister Ellen,” May 13, 1882.1EGWLM 909.1