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ANTEBELLUM YEARS
Elijah Veirs White was born on August 29, 1832, at "Stoney Castle", his
parents' 700-acre plantation about 2 miles west of Poolesville, Maryland on the Edwards' Ferry Road near the Potomac River. His parents
were Stephen Newton White, whose father Benjamin White lived in Prince Georges County before moving to Montgomery County in 1790, and
Mary Veirs, whose grandfather was Colonel William Veirs from the American Revolution. Stephen and Mary grew up on neighboring plantations
and were married on December 2, 1824. They had four children: Benjamin, Ann, Mary E., and Elijah.
Elijah received his early education in the Poolesville area and, since Benjamin decided to assist his father in the operations and
management of the farm, 16-year-old Elijah was able to attend the Lima Seminary near Rochester, New York, for his formal education.
After two years of preparatory classes, he transferred to Granville College (present-day Denison University) in Licking County, Ohio,
for the remaining two years.
Since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, the Territory of Kansas was embroiled in a struggle between abolitionist and
pro-slavery factions. In 1855, Elijah travelled to Kansas and enrolled in a Missouri militia company that was fighting against the
abolitionists.
By the latter part of 1856, though, Elijah had returned home and, on his 24th birthday, purchased 211 acres of land in neighboring
Loudoun County, Virginia. Then in January of 1857, Elijah acquired an adjoining farm of 144 acres. The land bordered the Potomac River and was located
three miles north of then-named Conrad's Ferry. On December 8, 1857, Elijah married 20-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Gott, whose family
owned "Mt. Carmel", a tobacco plantation near Dickerson. Elijah and Sarah's first child, Stephen Newton, was born October
3, 1858, followed by Melvin in 1860 and Mary Elizabeth in 1861. During this time, Elijah remained associated with militia units. He
was a member of the Loudoun County Cavalry before John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry in October 1859. He later transferred to Captain
Frank Mason's Company, which later became the nucleus of Lieutenant Colonel Turner Ashby's 7th Virginia Cavalry Regiment.
