Description

Thomas Howard White (1836-1914) was the founder of the White Sewing Machine Company, the While Motor Company, and the Thomas H. White Foundation, all of Cleveland, Ohio. He was born in Massachusetts, part of the White family which had immigrated from England ca. 1638. He moved to Cleveland in 1867. In 1876 he, his half-brother Howard W. White, and Rollin C. White (no relation) incorporated the White Sewing Machine Company. In 1899, his son Rollin Henry White invented the White steam car, put into production by the White Sewing Machine Company in 1900. In 1906, The automobile division was separated from the Sewing Machine Company as the White Company, later the White Motor Company. He and his wife, Almira Greenleaf White, had eight children; Mabel Almira Harris (wife of James Armstrong Harris), Alice Maud Hammer (wife of William Joseph Hammer), Windsor Thomas White, Clarence Greenleaf White, Rollin Henry White, Walter Charles White, and Ella Almira Ford (wife of Horatio Ford). The collection consists of a copy of the publication, Descendants of Thomas White, Volume II , written for Elizabeth White King by Betty King and Alice Coyle Lunn. The documentation collected during research for this book makes up the rest of the collection. It includes copies of wills, deeds, and patents; original correspondence and transcripts of correspondence of members of the White family; travel scrapbooks and a baby scrapbook; diaries; unpublished manuscripts; book; newspaper clippings; drawings; maps; oral history transcripts and memoirs; reports of Dr. Lunn to Betty King concerning her genealogical and historic research; and genealogical questionnaires filled out by family members.