Born: Saturday, May 28th, 1842
Died: Wednesday, April 29th, 1914
Birthplace: Wellsburg, Virginia
Religion: Protestant
Education: Vermillion Institute (1860-1862)
Career: Probate Judge (1868-1871)
Prosecuting Attorney (1876-1878)
Territorial Legislature (1878-1880)
U.S. Attorney (1885-1889)
Served: Friday, June 1st, 1900 to Monday, January 14th, 1901
Also Served: Wednesday, March 20th, 1901 to Tuesday, October 7th, 1902
Political Party: Democrat
Appointing Governor: Rogers (Democrat)
William H. White was one of five Supreme Court candidates nominated by Democrats for the state’s first judicial election on October 1, 1889. However, it would be more than 10 years before William “War Horse” White finally secured, through appointment, a seat on the high court. He replaced Justice Merritt J. Gordon, who decided to retire 6 months before the end of his 6-year term. Justice Wallace Mount won the seat in the November 1900 election and replaced Justice White on January 14, 1901.Justice White’s second term of service was a temporary appointment pursuant to the Act of March 18, 1901, which authorized a temporary 18-month expansion of the Court’s membership from five to seven (see Chapter 148, Session Laws, 1901, Sec. 1). This expansion lapsed in 1902 (see State Ex Rel. Murphy v. McBride, 29 Wash. 335, 1902) but was made permanent in 1905 (see Chapter 5, Session Laws, 1905, Sec. 1), and membership was ultimately enlarged to nine in 1909 (see Chapter 24, Session Laws, 1909, Sec. 1).
The Washington High Bench Biography
Although he served on the supreme court only two years, William Henry White established many firsts: the first judge appointed by a governor to fill a vacancy; the first elected to a short term; the first appointed to a temporary vacancy; the first to return to the high bench after having previously served; and the first Democrat.
White traced his Scotch-Irish ancestry in America back to the Revolutionary War. His parents, Thompson and Sarah, had moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia, where William was born. Thompson operated flour and saw mills in Wellsburg, Virginia, and became a staunch Unionist and Republican at the outbreak of the Civil War. The younger White received his education from private schools, including the Vermillion Institute at Hayesville, Ohio. But he left at age fifteen to serve with the Ohio Volunteer Infantry in the War Between the States. Because of a serious battle wound, he returned to civilian life to teach school in Ohio and then to study law under the supervision of Judge Joseph H. Pendleton. The West Virginia bar admitted White in 1868. He then won election as recorder and probate judge of Brooke County, Ohio, as a Democrat. He rejected the Republicans because of disagreement over reconstruction, the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, and loyalty oaths required in West Virginia. In 1871 he moved to Seattle. Because of the 1873 economic depression, White moved back east in a vain search of better opportunities for practicing his profession.
In 1874 he returned to Seattle, resumed his law partnership with Colonel Charles H. Larrabee, and threw himself into local politics. According to a Seattle Bar Association memorial:
Mr. White took an active part in politics. He had been the leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic party, and because of his aggressiveness, eloquence and power he had become popularly known as “War Horse” White. He was chairman of the Democratic state delegation at the National Convention in 1896 that nominated William J. Bryan for President … He was the foremost orator of his party in the territory and state … His activities as a lawyer and citizen made him a prime factor in the upbuilding of Seattle.
In 1876 voters elected him prosecuting attorney for the Third Judicial District. Two years later he entered the lower house of the territorial legislature and served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He also served as Seattle City Attorney and narrowly missed being elected the territory’s delegate to Congress in 1884. In 1885 President Grover Cleveland appointed White U. S. Attorney for Washington Territory.
While U. S. Attorney, White played a leading role in the 1885 Seattle Chinese riots. A mob of whites forced Chinese residents out of their homes and herded them onto a steamer headed for San Francisco. White arrived on the scene and ordered the police to break up the mob, which they refused. According to one account, White then “cursed the police as cowards and ordered the mob to disperse. They didn’t. They jeered him and he cursed them, too.” He, the mayor, and sheriff called out the home guard, bringing the situation under control and allowing the Chinese to return to their homes. White won grand jury indictments against the riot leaders, although, much to his disappointment, all won acquittal.
Although “War Horse” White was better known for his partisan activities prior to his short tenure on the high bench, he quickly joined in the court’s deliberations and wrote his share of opinions. He rarely dissented from his colleagues, even though he was probably the most progressive among them. White was never hesitant in political or judicial matters. His opinions often reflected his boldness. For example, in Palmer v. Laberee, White wrote that courts “cannot correct what they deem excesses in legislation,” but if enactments threatened such fundamental provisions of the state constitution as the right of contract they become “obnoxious to all constitutional restriction, and should not be upheld.” He and his colleagues then promptly invalidated the law.
William White was a tall, imposing figure, which enhanced his considerable public-speaking talents. As the Seattle bar’s memorial described, his “physical form and proportions [made] so striking a figure that it would not be hyperbole to describe him as an Apollo.” White, sure of his politics and daring in his advocacy, did not easily change his views.
White married Emma McRedmond in June 1898, and they became parents of Martha, Dorothy, and Ruth. The city of Redmond was named after Emma’s father, and the Whites’ 320-acre estate became the Redmond golf course and their home the club house. White was an active Mason, a commander of the Stevens Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Selected References
W. C. Wolfe, Sketches of Washingtonians (1906), p. 302; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 23 Apr. 1976; Washington State Bar Association Proceedings (1914), pp. 232-236; H. K. Hines, History of Washington (1893), pp. 532-533.
The preceding biography is from Charles Sheldon's The Washington High Bench: A Biographical History of the State Supreme Court, 1889-1991, © 1992 by the Board of Regents of Washington State University. Reprinted here with permission and licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License by The Temple of Justice Project.
