CYRUS WHITE
BIOGRAPHY
AS RECORDED IN:
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
TOLLAND
AND WINDHAM COUNTIES CONNECTICUT.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT AND
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS AND OF MANY OF THE EARLY SETTLED FAMILIES.
PUBLISHER: J.H.BEERS & CO., CHICAGO;
1903
CYRUS WHITE, late president, treasurer
and manager of the White Manufacturing Company, and president of White,
Corbin & Company, Rockville, was born at Richford, Vt., November 18,
1814, the eldest of eight children of a farmer of moderate means. He was
early inured to the toils and
privations of life in a newly settled region, and thereby gained a hardy
physical development, and laid the foundation of industry, frugality and
self reliance, which served him so well in his subsequent career. With
the limited educational privileges of a few weeks each year in the district
schools, he gained a fair knowledge of the rudimentary sciences (reading,
writing, and arithmetic), and at the age of nineteen started out to learn
the blacksmiths trade, serving an apprenticeship of three years in
the little hamlet of East Enosburg, about ten miles distant from the paternal
home. Here he learned, literally and figuratively, to strike while the
iron is hot, a practical lesson to keep ever in mind. At the close of this
term, in November, 1836, the chances for obtaining employment in Northern
Vermont being less favorable than in other localities, he made an engagement
with a man in Ware, Mass., and went there to find that his intended employer
had died suddenly a few hours before his arrival. This left him without
business among strangers, with only three dollars in his pocket, but providentially
he heard of an opening for employment at Vernon Center, Conn., with a chance
to work his passage thither by helping a drove of
cattle to that place. There he remained until April 1, 1838, receiving
about eighty cents per day and his board for his services, from which during
the seventeen months he managed to save $100 in cash; and with this capital
he hired a shop at Rockville, employed two assistants, and thus commenced
business for himself. On January 1, 1839, he engaged in a matrimonial partnership
with Miss Sarah A. Grant, of Ware, Mass., formerly a school companion in
Vermont. This union proved a very fortunate and happy one, and continued
until his death. Of five children born to them, three are yet living, namely:
Sarah Jane, now Mrs. P.Gorman; John W.; and Lillian F., wife of Edward White,
all of whom live in Rockville. During the next few years, Mr. White acquired
considerable real estate and built the residence in which
he lived at the time of his death, also Whites Opera House and other
buildings. In 1848 he bought a half interest in the iron foundry business,
and about two years later the firm of C.White & Co., which had at this
date bought tools and started a machine shop business in connection with
the foundry and smelting business, with Milton G. Puffer employed as a patternmaker
and ingenious mechanic, inaugurated a series of experiments which resulted
in the production of an improved machine capable of folding and pasting
10,000 letter envelopes per day, Mr. White discovering in this a chance
for a permanent and profitable enterprise, began to lay the foundations
for the eminently successful business of C.White & Co. In this
his partner had less faith, and in 1855 sold his interest to L.A. Corbin,
when the firm was changed to White& Corbin and the foundry and blacksmith
shop were sold, a water-power purchased, and early in the spring of 1856
a four story building, 83 x 39, was erected for an envelope factory. On
July 4th, following, three or four of these improved envelope machines were
started in the new factory, and the business was placed on a more permanent
basis, Mr. White devoting his time exclusively to the general
management of the business, and to the building up of a trade of envelopes
and paper. Sales were small and means also; hence the firm had to proceed
slowly. A business of about $8,000 the first year, more than doubled the
next, and so continued to increase until a condition was reached where sales
amounted to $325,000 in a single year. Machines were added as fast as they
could be made by the company with their limited facilities. In 1866 William
H. Prescott, who had been their bookkeeper for several years, and who by
his ability and strict attention to business had made his services indispensable
to the firm, was at the instance of Mr. White, admitted as a partner, with
an equal interest with the two former partners when the firm became White,
Corbin & Co. In May, 1870, Mr. White having other business requiring
his attention, retired from the management of the envelope and paper business
and thereafter for years the managerial duties devolved upon Mr. Prescott.
The business continued to develop to such an extent that in 1881 gave occasion
for the purchase of the Florence Mills , one of the largest
and finest mill buildings in Rockville, and which it became necessary to
enlarge by extensive additions some years later in order to accommodate
the still increasing business, which became among the most extensive of
its line in the world. As ability, integrity, and success had great value
to the name of Cyrus White, it was frequently sought as a means of obtaining
credit by others less fortunate. By his kindness of heart, which too often
led him to disregard warnings to avoid surety, he became involved by the
failure of parties he had assisted during the autumn of 1869, in liabilities
amounting to nearly $200,000. This necessitated taking certain mill properties,
assuming private encumbrances thereon, and likewise a further outlay to
make the property available as a source of income for reimbursement for
obligations he had assumed. This led to the commencement of the White Manufacturing
Company, of which Mr. White was principal owner and manager at the time
of his death; he also then held a one-third interest in White, Corbin &
Co. He also owned the Highland farm, located within the city limits, which
he himself carried on and managed. He took great pleasure in improving
its well-tilled fields, and in its fine herd of cows and young stock. He
also owned a large farm in Enosburg, Vt., well stocked, together with two
fine sugar orchards of over two thousand trees.
In Rockville Mr. White did a large grain
and milling business, the extensive City mills being then run
by the White Manufacturing Company. Various enterprises with which Mr.
White was at that time, and had been, identified had kept him a very busy
man. Notwithstanding he was almost an octogenarian
at the time of his death, he still attended to the direction and general
management of his business with the energy and vigor of a man in the prime
of life. A recital of the struggles and triumphs through which he had passed
affords a fine picture of a life which illustrates the possibilities of
undimmed vision and spirit as buoyant as in earlier a success of enterprises
undertaken under adverse circumstances, and in some cases almost without
any previous practical knowledge of their details. His success is not measured
by his own personal profit only, but in the advancement of the interests
of others with whom he was associated, and in contributing largely to the
material wealth, prosperity, population and industries of his adopted
city, notwithstanding the many obstacles that would discourage or dismay
the average man, but which Mr. White resolutely met and overcame. To the
very last he looked on the bright side of life with undimmed vision and
spirit as buoyant as in earlier days; and while he carried a full share
of the burdens and responsibilities of life, he extended a hearty greeting
of a friend, and richly deserved the reputation he won, and the magnificent
success he achieved.
From early boyhood Mr. White was a devout
Methodist and in the early days of the church at Rockville he threw himself
into the work with great energy. To him more than any other one man was
due the building of the handsome church edifice on Main street. Politically
he was a Whig, then a Republican, but at time his sympathy was strongly
with the Prohibition party, as he was a strong advocate of temperance.
Mr. White died at his home at Rockville, May 10, 1891. His estimable widow
yet resides at the old home of her deceased husband, and is remarkably well
preserved for one of her years.
Reproduced by:
Linda D. Pingel great-great granddaughter of Cyrus White
Duncanville, Texas
Biographies of Tolland County
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