Christian Streit White

White's father, Hampshire County Clerk of Court John Baker White, learned of the advancement of Union Army forces on Romney, and became concerned for the safety of the county's records. His father proceeded to load land registration records ledger books onto wagons and had them transported to Winchester, Virginia, for safekeeping.[16][17] In 1863, when Winchester was no longer a safe location for the storage of Hampshire County's land records and they again risked destruction by Union Army forces,[16][17] Christian Streit White took responsibility for the records and transferred them to Front Royal.[17][18] When Front Royal became endangered by advancing Union Army forces, White had the records moved to Luray Caverns where they remained for several months.[13][17][18] In fall 1864, the county's record books were rescued by White and his company as Union Army troops were in the process of destroying them.[17][18] White's company loaded about 150 record books into a wagon and they were taken to North Carolina where they remained safely for the duration of the war.[13][17][18] Hampshire County's land records survived and were returned to the courthouse following the conclusion of the American Civil War,[13] likely by a soldier returning to the area from North Carolina.[18] Had White's father John Baker White not separated the records and sent the bound volumes away for safekeeping, Hampshire County would have lost all its records during the course of the war, as those that remained in the courthouse were destroyed.[16]

The Hampshire County Courthouse in Romney, where Christian Streit White served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County. This courthouse was built in 1833 and remained in service until it burned in 1921.

Following his return from the war to his hometown of Romney in June 1865, White was unable to recommence his practice of law or hold a public office due to the existing state laws of the Constitution of West Virginia which disbarred former Confederate States government and military personnel.[1][3] White's situation was further complicated, as he had not been pardoned or paroled by the United States for his service in the Confederate States Army.[3] White rented a farm in Hampshire County and engaged in successful agricultural pursuits until the disenfranchisement of former Confederates was struck from the state's constitution in 1872.[1][3] In 1872, White was elected to the position of Clerk of Court for Hampshire County and began his term the following year in 1873.[1][3][19][20] During his tenure as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, White also served one term as Clerk of the Circuit Court between 1873 and 1876,[1][20] but declined to run for a second term in that office.[3] Prior to the American Civil War, White's father John Baker White had also served as the county's Clerk of Court for 47 years between 1815 and 1861.[12][21] White served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County for 29 years until 1902.[4][13] He and his father served in the position a combined total of 76 years.[13][19] Also following the war, White was elected as a member of the Romney Literary Society.[22]

By 1876, White was serving as the chairman of the Hampshire County Democratic Executive Committee. While holding this post, White organized and carried out extensive campaigning for West Virginia Democratic Party membership and political candidates. Through his efforts, the number of registered Democrats in Hampshire County swelled from 449 in the preceding election year to 1,369.[1][3]

During the West Virginia Democratic Party Senatorial Convention held at Moorefield in August 1886, White proposed and advocated the first tariff reform and anti-monopoly resolutions ever passed and adopted by a West Virginia Democratic Party Convention.[1][3][23] Prior to its passage at the convention, White's proposal received strong opposition.[1][3] Tariff reform and anti-monopoly resolutions similar to White's proposal were adopted by the national Democratic Party as part of its 1888 platform.[23] White had been among the first Democratic Party members in Hampshire County to openly declare his opposition to the fiscal policies of the administration of United States President Grover Cleveland.[3] Under White's leadership, Hampshire County's Democratic delegation was the first Democratic county organization in West Virginia to hold public meetings in opposition to Cleveland's fiscal policies.[3] As the county executive committee chairman, White was the first Democrat in Hampshire County to deliver a public speech denouncing these policies.[3] By 1897, White had participated as a delegate from Hampshire County to most of the Senatorial and Congressional Democratic Party conventions in West Virginia, and every state Gubernatorial convention with the exception of one.[3]

White was described by George W. Atkinson in his Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890) as "a consistent, but liberal Democrat"[23] and by historians Roberta R. Munske and Wilmer L. Kerns in their Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1754–2004 (2004) as "a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat."[13] West Virginia historians Hu Maxwell and Howard Llewellyn Swisher in their History of Hampshire County (1897) stated that White was "independent in thought and character and fearless in following his convictions, he has never been a follower of party leaders."[3]

On February 20, 1877, an act entitled "Act to increase the supply of food fishes in the rivers and waters of this State" was passed by the West Virginia Legislature creating the West Virginia Fish Commission for the purpose of propagating pisciculture for the stocking of streams in West Virginia to transform them into viable fisheries.[24][25][26] White was appointed by West Virginia Governor John J. Jacob as one of the inaugural commissioners on June 1, 1877, along with John W. Harris of Greenbrier County and Henry B. Miller of Wheeling.[1][3][24][26][27] White was appointed for a term of four years.[24] The newly appointed commission convened on July 17, 1877, and White was elected its secretary and Harris as its president.[24] White and his two commissioner colleagues were "dedicated to their cause,"[28] but their beginning efforts faced opposition from public officials who did not understand the importance of the fish commission.[28]

White embarked upon a search for potential locations for a state fish hatchery, and in the summer of 1877, he purchased the Maguire Springs and 2.5 acres (1.0 ha) near Romney from Charles Harmison of Valley View.[24][28][29] At the Maguire Springs, White "erected and equipped" a fish hatchery costing $700 at his own expense,[28][29] and by 1878, the hatchery was in "successful operation" and 600,000 fishes had been distributed from it.[26] The West Virginia Fish Commission later purchased from White the Maguire Springs and the surrounding 0.75 acres (0.30 ha) for $550.[25][28][29] In 1880, the Maguire Springs hatchery was vastly improved and expanded with the construction of ponds and the erection of a fence around the hatchery facility.[29] In 1885, a residence was constructed at the hatchery for the facility's manager.[29] Following Miller's resignation from the commission, White was appointed as the President of the West Virginia Fish Commission in June 1885.[29] By June 1886, the hatchery ponds at the Maguire Springs were enlarged and in 1891, a hatching house was built along with additions to the manager's residence, all under White's direction.[29] White also personally served as the manager of the Maguire Springs fish hatchery during hiatuses between manager appointments.[29] By 1893, fish populations within the streams of West Virginia became self-sustaining and the hatchery operations at Maguire Springs were discontinued.[25]

In 1877, United States Fish Commissioner Spencer Fullerton Baird requested that West Virginia introduce the Chinook salmon into its streams.[29] The West Virginia Fish Commission's "first and most expensive efforts" involved the hatching and stocking of the salmon in West Virginia's streams.[29][30] To accomplish this feat, White designed and built charcoal raceways to culture the salmon.[30] The salmon were released into the South Branch Potomac River where they flourished and were caught by fishermen from Romney to Washington, D.C.[30] The salmon introduced by White and the commission migrated to the Chesapeake Bay, but did not return to West Virginia's streams to spawn.[30] Between 1877 and 1882, the West Virginia Fish Commission successfully hatched and distributed salmon, trout, black bass, shad, carp, gray bass, pike perch, silver perch, jack, and blue catfish, as well as mill pond roach as food for the bass.[lower-alpha 1][30] In a report to the United States Fish Commission on the quality of the hatchery's carp, White wrote: "One small scale carp, accidentally killed in draining the pond, was fried as pan-fish, eaten in my family, and pronounced good."[31]

Over a decade after his appointment to the commission, White and his colleagues continued to perform their duties of office without pay from the West Virginia Legislature.[28] The legislature continued to authorize $500 annually for the hatching and stocking of fish in West Virginia's streams.[28] White was reappointed as a commissioner by each succeeding Democratic governor.[1][3] For the majority of his tenure serving on the West Virginia Fish Commission, White held the post of the commission's President.[3]

White was married on July 25, 1867, in Hampshire County to Elizabeth "Bessie" Jane Schultze, the daughter of Dr. Robert Schultze and his wife Elizabeth "Bessie" Armstrong Schultze.[3][42][43] Schultze was born on November 18, 1837, in Rotterdam, Netherlands[3][40][42][43] and was of Scottish descent.[5] Her father, Dr. Robert Schultze, was a professor of foreign languages at the University of Edinburgh.[5][40] Schultze's father also served in the British Diplomatic Service.[3][5] White and his wife Bessie had one child, a son:[3][4][14]

Following the death of his first wife, Bessie, on June 24, 1869,[3][47] White again married on May 26, 1873, to Catharine Steele.[3][48] Steele was born in Belfast or Dublin and was the daughter of Thomas G. Steele in Fairmont, West Virginia, at the time of her marriage to White.[3][4][48] Steele arrived in the United States at the age of seven and was raised in Fairmont.[4] Steele's father was a native of Dublin and was the first secretary of the Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows of West Virginia.[4] White and his wife Catharine had four children, two sons and two daughters:[3][4][14]

White's second wife, Catharine, died in 1911 in Romney[58] and was interred at Indian Mound Cemetery.[40]