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Historical records matching Albert Smith White, U.S. Senator
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About Albert Smith White, U.S. Senator
Albert Smith White
U.S. Senator & Representative from the State of Indiana and Railroad President
White was born in Orange County, New York. He graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1822, after which he studied law; he entered practice as a lawyer in 1825. After a time he moved to Lafayette, Indiana, where he worked as the assistant clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1831–32, moving up to the full clerkship in 1832-35. He also ran for the House in 1832, but was defeated.
1836 proved a more successful year for White; he served as a presidential elector on the Whig ticket, and was himself elected as a Whig to the 25th Congress (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1839). After a single term in the House, White ran for the Senate in the 1838 election.
White won election to the Senate, where he served as chairman of two committees: the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. White declined to stand for reelection.
After leaving the Senate, he returned to Indiana, moving to the town of Stockwell, where he once again took up law, and also served as the president of several railroads, including the Indianapolis and La Fayette Railroad and the Wabash and Western Railroad. In the 1860 election, he re-entered politics, running as a Republican for the House.
White was elected to the House again, serving from March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863. He was a member of the select committee on emancipation. After his first term, he again did not run for reelection. After leaving the House, President Abraham Lincoln named him a member of a commission that would judge claims against the government from citizens for not protecting them from Indian attacks. After his service there, he was made a judge on the U.S. District Court for Indiana. He served in this capacity until his death in Stockwell in 1864, when he was interred in Greenbush Cemetery in Lafayette.
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U.S. Congressman and Senator. After graduation from Union College in his native New York, he moved to Lafayette, Indiana where he spent the rest of his life in public service. In 1836 he was elected, as a member of the Whig Party, to Congress representing Indiana’s twenty-fifth district. He served one term before running for and being elected US Senator from the Hoosier state. He did not seek reelection. The former Senator returned to Stockwell, Indiana where he continued his law practice and worked as president for several railroad companies. In 1860 he reentered politics, running as the Republican Party candidate for a Congressional seat. He won and served from 1861 to 1863. Once again he declined to run for reelection, but he was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to serve on a three man commission formed to judge claims from citizens made against the government regarding attacks made by Native Americans. Later he was named a judge for the U.S. District Court for Indiana. He sit on the bench until his death.
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Honoring Whitestown Namesake ~ Albert S. White
Boone County INGenWeb
October 2, 2006
Dear Friends -
My family wants to do something special to honor Whitestown, Indiana, which was named after our great-great Grandfather, U.S. Senator and Federal Judge appointed by Abraham Lincoln, Albert S. White of LaFayette, Indiana. Our thought is a ceremony with a special framed photo, including three dedicatory plaques: one to be placed in the town hall and the other two on the North and South edges of Whitestown, if you think this is a good idea.
We will pay for and arrange for the photo and the plaques. We would like your help on setting up an appropriate ceremony and time of year, if the Whitestown officials and citizens deem the idea a good one.
Several years ago when my 90-year old mother, Eleanor White Mintener of Minneapolis and I from Canton, NY were doing family history research in Indianapolis and Lafayette, on my two Great-Great grandfathers from Indiana, Senator/Federal Judge Albert S. White of Lafayette and Indiana pioneer painter Jacob Cox of Indianapolis, we stopped in at the Town Clerk's office in Whitestown, IN on our way to Lafayette, curious about the history of the town. My first question was how and after whom was the town, Whitestown, named? The answer was uncertain, with a couple of possibilities mentioned. I then wondered if the town was named after my G-G Grandfather, who started the railroad which went through town on the way to LaFayette. I said I would do some research, and I did and I discovered from the Indiana Book on Place Names that the town was named after Albert S. White who was a Whig U.S. Congressman from Tippecanoe County from 1837-39, then ran for the U.S. Senate and won for a 6-year term until 1846, when he decided to retire from politics and return to law practice, start a utopian community with John Purdue and others in Stockwell, IN and work on bridges, railroads and the end of the Erie Canal.
Then, one day in 1860, when nextdoor neighbor Abraham Lincoln was passing through LaFayette on a campaign tour, he stopped in to see Albert S. White to urge him to step out of retirement and run as a Republican for the U.S. Congress again. Grandfather White said: "Yes, on one condition (according to the renowned Civil War author Carl Sanburg in his third volume). That you name my friend postmaster of LaFayette when you become President." Lincoln promised to do so. Both White and Lincoln were elected respectively to President and Congress.
A year or so later, Congressman Albert S. White and my great-great Grandmother Harriet Randoplh White (one of Mary Todd Lincoln's four best social friends during and after her White House years...that's another interesting story.... about the Whites' marriage in Richmond, VA and her connection to Tuckahoe plantation on the James River and to Thomas Jefferson learning to read and write with her father in the one-room school house still standing at Tuckahoe) was at a social function at the White House and when he was greeted by President Lincoln. White said to Lincoln that he had not kept his promise about his friend and that Lincoln appointed someone else, at which point, Lincoln turns his backside to White, lifts up his frockcoat and, in a way of apology, says to White to "kick him right here on my backside, if you will." There are many other stories, which I am trying to put in a book and a pre-article for the Indiana and Boone County Historical magazines.
I would like to be in touch with all of you on what we can do together to recognize Whitestown's namesake.
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Albert Smith White, U.S. Senator's Timeline
| 1803 |
October 24, 1803
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Blooming Grove, Orange County, New York, United States
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| 1846 |
1846
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| 1849 |
December 28, 1849
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Indiana, United States
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| 1864 |
September 4, 1864
Age 60
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Stockwell, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States
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September 4, 1864
Age 60
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Greenbush Cemetery, Lafayette, Tippecaone County, Indiana, United States
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