Haffield White, Major

A Patriot of the American Revolution for MASSACHUSETTS with the rank of CAPTAIN, ADJUTANT. DAR Ancestor #: A124696

David Wallis, one of the original pioneers was from Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was a man of a respectable family and character. A letter writer says of him: "David Wallis told me that on reaching Marietta he was attacked by small-pox, and he removed at once from the camp, and made his bed beside a log in the woods where food was brought to him until he was cured. He then concluded to return to Massachusetts, and he and another man crossed over the Ohio river and walked up to Pittsburg through a wilderness, where hostile Indians used often to hunt. Mr. Wallis then worked at a smelting furnace until he earned money to buy food, while he made the journey on foot to his old home." Another writer states that he did not long remain there, as the charms of a sister of one of his late comrades, who in the meantime had emigrated westward, had made an impression upon his mind that he could not forget; and so he again shouldered his rifle and a second time visited Marietta, but only to be rejected; and he returned the way he came, a wiser, if a sadder man. He settled in Ipswich hamlet, and with his family about him, would often, in his old age, tell of his long pedestrian tour to Ohio in search of a wife. *

Major Haffield White was appointed by the directors of the Ohio Company commissary and conductor of the first party of pioneers who left Danvers, December 3, 1787, and shared with them the labor and suffering attending the long march over the snow-clad mountains of Pennsylvania. He was a soldier of the revolution, and "served as a Lieutenant in Hutchinson's Regiment; and as Captain in Putnam's (5th) Regiment, and rendered distinguished services at the battle of Lexington, at the crossing of the Delaware, at Trenton, Hubbardton, and at Saratoga," and was made a Major at the close of the war. He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Major White owned three shares in the Ohio Company. He was robust, active, and prompt in the execution of business. During the first year after his arrival at Marrietta he continued to act as steward for the company, and also built for himself a house in Campus Martius. The next year, with Colonel Robert Oliver and Captain John Dodge, he erected mills on Wolf Creek, which were the first ever built in Ohio. On the breaking out of the Indian war, these mills being in a very exposed situation, were abandoned, the owners taking refuge at Marietta. On the return of peace he settled on land he owned near the mills. These also eventually became his property. Major White was a useful citizen noted for his industry and integrity. He died December 13, 1817.

Source:

http://www.ohiogenealogyexpress.com/muskingum/muskingumco_bios/musk...