Clay County Biographies
JEREMIAH WHITE
~ farmer, post office, Missouri City ~
The well known Baptist minister, HENRY HILL was the
clergyman who officiated at the marriage of Mr. White,
the subject of the present sketch, to MISS ELIZABETH
MCQUIDDY, in 1836. The ceremony took place in Clay
county, Missouri, in which Mr. White had located, direct
from Kentucky, some 2 years before.
He had been baptized by "RACOON" JOHN SMITH.
Since the time of first locating here he has been a
continuous resident of the county (except while
tempoarily absent in California) for a period of half a
century.
In personal appearance, Mr. White is a man of medium
build. Indeed he cannot be said to be more than an
ordinarly fleshy man, weighing in the vacinity (something
past the mark) of 160 pounds; and although now well
advanced in years, like most men in good health, he is
quite good humored, and jocularly remarks that he has
managed to pick up only five pounds in Clay county in 50
years.
In 1850 he went to California seeking his fortune in the
Pactolian sands of the Pacific Coast. Locating at Sonoma,
he was there employed as chain carrier under the
afterwards famous MR. PEABODY, then a humble surveyor in
the land beyond the Cordilleras kissed by the last rays
of the setting sun.
He received $5 a day under Mr. Peabody and afterwards ran
a livery stable for SPRIGGS & COOPER at Sonoma.
Subsequently, he set sail on the billowy waters of the
Pacific, bound for his home in the heart of the
Continent, by way of the Palm-leaf lsthmus of Panama and
the Crescent City of New Orleans.
Finally reaching home, he resumed farming and
stock-raising, which he has continued ever since.
He and his good wife have been blessed with 9 children,
namely: BENJAMIN, MARTHA, MARY N., HARRIET S., JOHN,
DANIEL T., FRANKLIN, JEREMIAH & EMMA. SARAH M., the
eldest, died at the age of 9 years.
Mr. White was born in Fayette county, KY., September 15,
1812. He came to Clay county, Missouri in 1834.
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This page was last updated
June 7, 2005.
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