Attorney, Colorado Supreme Court Justice and Chief justice, Congressman
Sebastian Harrison White (December 24, 1864 – December 21, 1945) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served part of one term as a U.S. Representative from Colorado, and also as a justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Early life and education
Born on a farm near Maries County, Missouri, his parents were Jonah William and Cloa Ann (Reeder) White. His father was from Tennessee and his mother was from Virginia.[1] White attended the rural schools in Dallas County, Missouri[2] and private schools.[3] At the age of ten, White set out on his own,[4] having been "thrown upon his own resources."[3] When he was 16 years of age, he worked as a laborer and was living at the home of a physician and his wife in Lincoln County in Dallas County.[5] He attended the Marionville Collegiate Institute in Missouri (later the Ozark Wesleyan College) at Carthage, Missouri).[2]
Career
He taught school for several years. At 19 years of age, White was elected president of the Hickory County Teachers Institute in 1886.[1] He was elected superintendent of schools of Hickory County, Missouri in 1887 at 23 years of age.[2][1]
Legal career
He studied law while he was a teacher and he was admitted to the bar in Colorado and Missouri in 1889[6] and practiced law in Pueblo, Colorado.[2] He was a partner with Charles P. Dunbaugh in the White & Dunbaugh law firm.[7]
Early political career
He served as delegate to the Democratic State convention in 1892. He served as chairman of the Pueblo County Democratic central committee in 1892. He served as city attorney of Pueblo from 1897 to 1899. He was a public trustee of Pueblo County from 1900 to 1903 and from 1905 to 1909. He served as district attorney of the tenth judicial district from 1904 to 1908.[2]
White was elected justice of the Colorado Supreme Court in 1908 for a term of ten years 1909 to 1919, and served as chief justice from 1917 until 1918, when he retired. He engaged in the practice of law in Denver, Colorado in 1919.[2]
Congress
White was elected as a Democrat to the 70th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of William N. Vaile and served from November 15, 1927 to March 3, 1929. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1928 to the 71st Congress.
He was the author of the minority report that precipitated the fight over the fusion with the Populists that resulted in a split in the convention. He was elected secretary of that division of the party which was denominated “The White Wings”, and which nominated a straight Democratic ticket.[1]
He married Eva Dunbaugh of Pueblo, Colorado in December 1893.[6] Her father was Charles P. Dunbaugh, a hotelier in Pueblo.[8] They had two children: Adrian Dunbaugh White and Gertrude Gloria White.[1]
^ abLeonard, John William; Marquis, Albert Nelson (1914). Who's who in America. A.N. Marquis. p. 2526.
^ abState Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado (1927). History of Colorado. Linderman Co., Inc. pp. 342–345.
^Harrison White, Lincoln, Dallas, Missouri. Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
^ abcLewis, George E.; Stackelbeck, D. F. (1917). Bench and bar of Colorado. Denver: Bench and Bar Publishing Co. p. 86.
.jpg)
