California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


SANDY J. WHITE, of Armona, is one of the many sons of Missouri to contribute to the 
well-being of Kings county. He was born in Phelps county, near the county seat, December 
15, 1857, a son of Isaac N. and Nancy (Hopkins) White, who were born in the south and were 
very early settlers in Missouri, where the father died at the age of forty-five, two days before the 
birth of his son, Sandy J. When he was seven years old his mother died, and it fell to his lot 
to make his home with his maternal grandmother until his fourteenth year. He then struck 
out for himself and went to Kansas to live on a farm with his uncle near Topeka, and in 1875. 
when eighteen years old, came to California, arriving in Woodland with ten cents in his pocket. 
This fact did not discourage him, however, for he soon found work on a farm, where his will- 
ingness and ability not only secured the good will of its occupants, but fair remuneration con- 
sidering the time and place. In 1878 he came to what is now Kings county, and worked on a 
ranch for a year, going then into the employ of another rancher with whom he remained a year 
also. During the following four years he rented a ranch near Hanford, and then went to San Jose, 
where he clerked in the wholesale and retail grocery business of the Farmers' Union. After 
five years of mercantile experience he settled in Tulare and engaged in the real-estate business for 
a year, then married Mary F. Patterson, a native of Iowa, who came overland to California in 
1864, locating in Shasta county. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. White, Everett 
and Lloyd- E. Soon after his marriage Mr. White bought a ranch near Tulare, besides lots 
and residences in the town, three years later disposing of his property and purchasing an eighty- 
acre ranch three miles south of Armona. This land he set out to vineyard and orchard, oc- 
cupied and improved it for nine years, and then sold and purchased his present valuable farm. 
In the meantime he has bought and sold, exchanged and improved other properties, and has 
encouraged many to take up land and make their home in this fertile and promising community. 
His farm is under a high state of cultivation and he makes a specialty of fine Jersey stock for 
dairying. Mr. White is an upright and conscientious man, faithful to friends and duties, 
and one of the most helpful and progressive upbuilders which this county has known.