Alexander Colwell White    

WHITE, ALEXANDER COLWELL, was born near Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pa., on the 12th day of December, 1833; was raised on a farm, attending the public schools in winter until the age of twenty years, when he commenced his first term as teacher in a public school. The following summer he attended the Jacksonville Institute, and from that time attended school in summer and teaching during the winter, putting in the vacations harvesting, or as a hand rafting and running lumber, graduating at Dayton University in the fall of 1859.

In the summer of 1860 he came to Jefferson county to take charge of the public schools at Punxsutawney, and the same fall commenced studying law under the Hon. Phineas W. Jenks. In the spring 1861 he enlisted with the first three months men, and served in Company I Eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. A. A. Mc Knight’s company. He was admitted to practice at the December term, 1862, and in the spring of 1863 commenced the practice of law with Captain John Hastings, of Punxsutawney, Pa., under the firm name of Hastings & White. On the 25th of May, 1864, he married Ellen M. Murray, to whom two children have been born—John Murray White (the heir apparent), August 18, 1871, and Nelhe March White, March 26, 1876, and who died July 26, 1879. In 1867 he was elected district attorney of Jefferson county, and in the spring of 1868 removed to Brookville, and in 1870 was re-elected to the same office. From 1860 he has taken an active part in politics, at all times a staunch Republican, having no sympathy with third parties, or half way measure, respecting an opponent, but having little consideration for men without politics, religion or principle, commonly known as Mugwumps, or Half-Breeds.

The Twenty-fifth Congressional District, composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Jefferson, Clarion and Forest, was formed in 1874. The district was carried by the Democrats in 1880 and 1882, and was considered hopeless for a Republican. In 1884 Alexander C. White received the nomination, and after a hotly contested campaign he was elected by over eighteen hundred majority. He has been actively engaged in the practice of law since his admission to the bar. Whatever of wealth, reputation, etc., he has he has secured through his own exertions under the most adverse circumstances.

History of Jefferson County : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. Syracuse, N.Y.: D. Mason & Co. 1888   Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.