William C. White was born on March 2, 1836, in Ohio to Samuel White. His father was a farmer who owned $300 of real estate and $150 of personal property by 1860. White lived in Hayesville, Ohio, and by 1860, he was working as a carpenter.

 

He enlisted in the Union army in May 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 23^rd Ohio Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Antietam and the Shenandoah Valley campaign. He was wounded near Clark’s Hollow, West Virginia, on May 1, 1862, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. In 1863, Union officials placed him on recruitment duty. He disliked the work, observing that “it might have [been] better for me (pecuniarily at least) if I had been allowed to remain in the field.” On the other hand, he confessed, “I might have been dead and rotten by this time—nobody knows.” He mustered out on July 31, 1865.

 

He married Eleanor More on April 14, 1864, and they had at least five children: William, born around 1866; Edwin, born around 1868; Lewis, born around 1869; Franklin, born around 1871; and Ella, born around 1873. He settled in Columbus, Ohio, after the war and resumed his work as a carpenter. By 1870, he owned $200 of real estate. They moved to Bryan, Ohio, in the 1870s, and by 1900, they were living in Toledo, Ohio. He applied for a federal pension in July 1880 and eventually received one. His wife died in the early 1900s. By 1910, he was living in his son Franklin’s household in Toledo. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Toledo on April 17, 1915.

SOURCES