Robert White

Robert White (May 28, 1876 – August 15, 1935) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. White served four consecutive terms as the Prosecuting Attorney for Hampshire County, West Virginia (1912–1928), and served one term in the West Virginia Senate (1931–1935), representing the state's 15th Senate district in the 40th and 41st Sessions of the West Virginia Legislature. During the 1933 legislative year, White served as the floor leader for the Democratic Party members of the West Virginia Senate.

White was born in Romney, West Virginia, in 1876 to Hampshire County Clerk of Court Christian Streit White (1839–1917) and his second wife Catharine Steele White (1837–1869) and he was the grandson of Hampshire County Clerk of Court John Baker White (1794–1862). White was educated at Potomac Academy and began his career in public service at the age of 16 as Deputy Clerk of Court in his father's law office. He studied jurisprudence at the West Virginia University College of Law graduating in 1899.

White began practicing law in Romney, and he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Hampshire County in 1912. He was elected to the position four times, and served terms from 1912 to 1928. In addition, White served as the county's Commissioner of School Lands and as one of the county's Chancery Commissioners and Commissioners of Accounts. He was elected to represent the 15th Senate district in the West Virginia Senate in 1930 and served in the senate until 1934. In 1933, White was chairman of the senate's Judiciary Committee and he was also appointed to two special committees: one on economy and efficiency to study state and municipal government spending, and another to investigate the road commission's awarding of a contract for gasoline, oil, and grease to the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey over the Elk Refining Company.

Following a prolonged illness, White died in Romney in 1935 at the age of 59.

Early life and education Robert White was born on May 28, 1876, in Romney, West Virginia. He was the second child of Hampshire County Clerk of Court Christian Streit White (1839–1917) and his second wife Catharine Steele White (1837–1869), and was the third eldest of his father's five children. White was a grandson of Hampshire County Clerk of Court John Baker White (1794–1862) and a great-grandson of the prominent Virginia judge Robert White (1759–1831). He graduated from the West Virginia University College of Law in 1899, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree. White cast his first vote for Democratic Party presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan in the United States presidential election of 1900.

In 1912, White was first elected to serve as the prosecuting attorney for Hampshire County 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, and 1923. He also served as one of the county's Chancery Commissioners from 1916 to 1934, during which time, he served alongside his father, Joshua Soule Zimmerman, James Sloan Kuykendall, J. Ashby Mason, L. V. Thompson, John L. Lehman, and Ira V. Cowgill. He also served as one of the county's Commissioners of Accounts from 1926 to 1931. In addition, White served as a member of the Democratic Executive Committee for the 15th Senate district, and as the chairperson of the Hampshire County Democratic Party Executive Committee. He ran unopposed in the general election, and he was subsequently elected to the seat with 10,530 votes.

White served in the 40th and 41st Sessions of the West Virginia Legislature, which lasted from January 14, 1931 until the end of the 41st Session's extra session ending on March 24, 1934. (The 40th Session of the West Virginia Legislature convened on January 14, 1931 and its extra session adjourned on August 27, 1932.) The following legislative year in 1933, White served as the floor leader for the West Virginia Senate's Democratic Party members. In this position, White introduced twelve bills in 1933 to correct errors and omissions in existing statutes. Also in the 1933 legislative year, White served as a member on the Finance; Roads and Navigation; Counties, Municipal Corporations; Rules; Medicine and Sanitation; Education; Privileges and Elections; and Redistricting committees.

In February 1933, White was one of four senate Democrats appointed to serve on a special committee to investigate the road commission's awarding of a contract for gasoline, oil, and grease to the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey over the Elk Refining Company of Charleston. The committee's creation and investigation was in response to the Elk Refining Company's protest of the commission's decision, and the company's advertisement in which it claimed that its contract bid was $10,387.50 lower than that of Standard Oil. The committee not only investigated the commission's decision, but also examined the Elk Refining Company's advertisement. White questioned the advertisement's merit and commented that the committee was "entitled to know what the motive behind this advertisement was." "If there isn't anything to investigate we shouldn't be here investigating," he concluded.

Personal life

Marriage and issue White married Mabel Glasscock Fitch, the only child and daughter of E. H. Fitch and his wife Laura Glasscock Fitch, on January 7, 1903, in Washington, D.C. Fitch was a native of Vanceburg, Kentucky and she attended Marshall College while her family resided in Huntington. She completed her education in Washington, D.C. Mabel Glasgow White Cornwell (born February 18, 1906), married James Leighton Cornwell on August 25, 1926, in Hampshire County Elizabeth Steele White (born April 23, 1908) Roberta Huston White McFarland (born June 18, 1912), married Dr. William Franklin McFarland on June 13, 1936, in New Cumberland Robert White, Jr. Her funeral was hald at Romney Presbyterian Church, of which she was a member, and she was interred at Indian Mound Cemetery in Romney.

Like his wife, White was also Presbyterian. He also represented Hampshire County as a member of the West Virginia Historical Society. White never remarried following his wife's sudden death in 1915.

Later life and death Following the extended special sessions of the West Virginia Legislature in 1933, White returned home in poor health. White's illness continued to worsen, and on August 14, 1935, his physician Dr. R. W. Dailey reported to the Cumberland Evening Times that he was in critical condition and unlikely to recover. White succumbed to his illness and died at his residence in Romney on August 15, 1935, at the age of 59 as a result of arteriosclerosis. Myocarditis also contributed to his prolonged illness, but was not the cause of his death.

Following White's death, members of the Romney bar held a meeting of the Hampshire County court, in which they honored White as "one who appreciated the responsibilities and ethics of his profession", and "as a faithful public official and in private life an upright citizen and a dutiful husband and father."

Explanatory notes