Horace White papers

Collection

Identifier: MC 113

Staff Only

Abstract

Horace White was the son of one of the original settlers of Beloit in the 1830s, and White himself became a reporter for the Chicago Tribune for which he covered the Civil War and the Lincoln-Douglas debates. This collection is comprised of materials relating to Horace White's life before and after his graduation from Beloit College in 1853. It gathers biographical information, correspondence, photographs, and publications and speeches he wrote and delivered. The publications and speeches are primarily about economics and banking, and Abraham Lincoln. There are also a small number of documents regarding his gift donations to Beloit College.

Dates

1860-1972, bulk 1860-1916

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research; however, certain materials are fragile and require Archives staff for handling, or use may be restricted altogether.

Biographical / Historical

Excerpt from account by Robert H. Irrmann (undated)

Son of Dr. Horace White and Elizabeth Moore. Dr. Horace White was a representative of the New England Emigrating Company that secured the Beloit lands for settlement for his group in 1836-1837.

Horace White was born in Colebrook, New Hampshire on August 10, 1835, and died in New York City on September 16, 1916. He was a learned economist and a highly respected journalist.

White graduated from Beloit College in 1853, and in the following year was city editor of the Chicago Evening Journal. In 1855 he became the Chicago agent for the New York Associated Press. He gave up both posts to become assistant secretary of the National Kansas Commission ca. 1856. White's duty was "to receive and forward arms, ammunition, money, and supplies of all kinds to the Free State pioneers -- among them John Brown and two of his sons -- and to outfit parties of new settlers who passed through Iowa and Nebraska to the scene of the conflict. In 1857 he himself went to Kansas with the expectation of becoming a settler and a leader of the anti-slavery forces." [D.A.B. XX, 104-b]

In 1857 Horace White was induced by Dr. C.H. Ray, editor of the Chicago Tribune, to accept a position on that paper, of which he then became a stockholder, and retained his stock till his death. In 1858 White was Lincoln's companion on the tour, and the reporter for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Chicago Tribune made Horace White its Washington correspondent, permitting him also to hold the important post of clerk of the Senate Committee on military affairs, which position gave to him a remarkable insight into the conduct of the war. [D.A.B. 104-05]