Horace White (Biographical Sketches)

Reference
John Carbutt, "Horace White," Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago (Chicago: Wilson & St. Clair, Publishers, 1868), 353.
HORACE WHITE.

Horace White was born in Colebrook, Coos County, New Hampshire, August 10,1834. His father was a physician of high repute in his profession, and possessed unusual force of character. In the winter of 1836—7, Dr. White undertook a journey from northern New Hampshire to the Territory of Wisconsin, to select a site for a company or colony of New England settlers, who proposed, with himself, to find new homes in the distant West. Dr. White, with his horse and sleigh, accomplished this journey of some three thousand miles, going and returning, in the winter, and selected the site of the present city of Beloit as the future home of himself and associates. In the following summer, he brought his family to Beloit, and took up his abode in the only house in the place, a log structure which might have been taken for a fort, and which was, perhaps, constructed with a view to possible defensive operations against the Indians.

Dr. White died in the year 1843, at the early age of thirty-three, leaving a widow and four infant children, of ivhom Horace was the eldest.

In 1846, Mrs. White was again married, her second husband being Deacon Samuel Hinman, of Prairieville (now Waukesha), Wisconsin. He was a man of most interesting and exemplary character, whose affectionate care and judicious guardianship of the orphan children thus committed to his charge are remembered by them with filial gratitude. The family removed to Mr. Hinman's farm, near Prairieville, shortly after the marriage, where they remained three years. In 1849, Mr. Hinman removed to Beloit for the purpose of educating his children, and Mr. White entered Beloit College the same year, from which he graduated in 1853. In January, 1854, being then but nineteen years of age, he came to Chicago, and was employed first as " local," and afterwards as assistant editor, of the "Evening Journal." The daily newspapers of Chicago at that time were: The "Tribune," conducted by Thomas A. Stewart; the " Democrat," by John Wentworth; the " Democratic Press," by John L. Scripps and William Bross; and the "Journal," by R. L. & C. L. Wilson. Receiving the appointment of Agent of the Associated Press, he left the " Journal" in 1855. In the following year, he was chosen Assistant Secretary of the National Kansas Committee, whose headquarters had been fixed at Chicago; and, upon the disbandment of that organization, in 1857, he entered the office of the Chicago " Tribune," then published by the firm of Ray, Medill & Co., as an editorial writer. Since that date, he has been constantly connected with the " Tribune," although three years (from 1861 to 1864) were principally passed in Washington city, he acting as correspondent of the paper at the National Capital.

In 1864, Mr. White purchased an interest in the " Tribune," and in 1865 became its editor-in-chief, which position he now holds. He is known as a tireless worker, a ready thinker, a terse, powerful writer, a man of universal information and extraordinary endurance.
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