Biography

01/12/1834 - 06/23/1920

Brevet Brigadier General Henry Lloyd “Harry” White (R21) Armstrong and Indiana Counties 1863-1864 (R22) Cambria, Indiana and Jefferson Counties 1866-1871 (R24) Indiana and Westmoreland Counties 1872-1874  

Early Life: 

Brevet Brigadier General Henry Lloyd “Harry” White, born January 12, 1834, Indiana, Indiana County, Pennsylvania; son of Judge Thomas and Catherine Brooks McConnell White; public school education; Indiana Academy, 1849; College of New Jersey (now Princeton), 1854; attorney, admitted, bar, 1855; married, Anna Lena Sutton, 1860; captain, major, lieutenant colonel, colonel, Brevet Brigadier General, Civil War, 1861-1865; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1863-1864, prisoner of war, Civil War, 1863-1864; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1866-1874; elected, Speaker of the Senate, 1874; delegate, Pennsylvania State Constitutional Convention, 1872; unsuccessful campaign, Governor, 1872; co-framed, Pennsylvania Constitution, 1874; chaired, Republican State Convention, 1875; Pennsylvania National Guard, 1877; elected, Republican, United States House of Representatives, 1877-1881; judge, President Judge, Indiana County, 1884-1904; member, Republican State Central Committee, 1888; engaged, banking, president, Indiana County Deposit Bank; died, June 23, 1920, (age 86 years, 163 days), Indiana, Indiana County, Pennsylvania; interment Oakland Cemetery and Mausoleum, Indiana, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. 

Early Career:

Indiana County’s first Republican County committee chair, 1856; organized the Lincoln “rail-splitters club,” 1860.

Enlisted, 1861, Union Army, Captain, Sixty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry, serving until February 1865, attaining the rank of Brevet Brigadier General. While in the Army, elected, Pennsylvania Senate and attended sessions in the winter of 1862-1863. 

President Abraham Lincoln granted Senator Henry White a leave of absence to attend legislative sessions in Harrisburg. Refused his senator’s salary, having it forwarded to the Indiana district soldier’s relief fund. Recalled to Berryville at the close of the legislative session in mid-April 1863, captured by Robert E. Lee’s Louisiana Tigers at Winchester, Virginia; sent to Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia, June 1863; escaped captors five times, once on the way to notorious Andersonville South Carolina prison. Escaped, joining General William Tecumseh Sherman’s in Georgia, rejoined his regiment, Lieutenant Colonel, October 31, 1864; promoted, Colonel, January 18, 1865; mustered out and promoted to Brevet Brigadier General, March 2, 1865.

Professional titles; business ownership; board memberships; local government; club memberships:

Charter member, Free and Accepted Masons Indiana Lodge 313; Commander, General, Grand Army of the Republic, Indiana Post 28.   

Pennsylvania Politics:

Unsuccessful campaign, United States Congress, 1860.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 21st district, Armstrong and Indiana Counties, 1863-1864, captured, 1863, held at Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia. Unable to attend, the Pennsylvania State Senate was deadlocked with 16 Democrats and 16 Republicans, unable to elect Speaker. Refused parole, resigned, so a successor, elected, breaking the deadlock. Thomas St. Clair elected. John Penney elected, Speaker. 

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 22nd district, Cambria, Indiana and Jefferson Counties, member, Constitutional Reform, Federal Relations, Judiciary General, Military Affairs Committees, 1866-1871.

Elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 24th district, Indiana and Westmoreland Counties; 1872-1874; elected, Speaker of the Senate, 1874; chair, Constitutional Reform Subcommittee Number 2, Judiciary General, Library, Military Affairs Committees, member, Congressional Apportionment, Education, Committees. 

Delegate, Pennsylvania State Constitutional Convention, 1872. 

Unsuccessful campaign, Governor, 1872.

Co-framed, Pennsylvania Constitution, 1874. Chaired, Republican State Convention, 1875. 

Governor John F. Hartranft called on Major General, Ninth Division, Pennsylvania National Guard, to quell the Pittsburgh Railroad riots, 1877.  

Judge, President Judge, Indiana County, 1884-1904. 

Member, Republican State Central Committee, 1888.

Continued Government Service/National Politics:

Elected, Republican, United States House of Representatives, 45th, 46th Congresses, Armstrong, Clarion, Forest, Indiana, and Jefferson Counties, 25th district, 1877-1881; defeated, 1880; declined nomination, Congress, 1884; member, Burnside Military Commission, that restructured United States Army Manual. 

Legacy: 

Returned, Salisbury, North Carolina for the first time since 1864, for Pennsylvania monument dedication, honoring those who died while at the notorious Confederate prisoner of war camp, 1910.  

First cousin, Pennsylvania State Senator Titian James Coffey (R21) Armstrong, Clarion and Indiana Counties 1857-1859 (R21) Armstrong and Indiana Counties 1859. 

Titian James Coffey  - Pennsylvania Senate Library (pasen.gov)

At the time of his death, he was the last surviving Union officer brevetted by Abraham Lincoln*.

Donated, 250-acres now known as Whites' Woods Nature Center, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Publicly owned by White Township.

Cited: 

67th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment (civilwarintheeast.com)

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1871) Smull, John A., Members of the Senate of Pennsylvania, page 428, 436-438.

Smull’s Legislative Handbook, (1873) Smull, John A., Members of the Senate of Pennsylvania, page 516, 522-524. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Tuesday January 2, 1872, · Page 3

*Evening Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania), June 24, 1920.

Cox, Harold. "Senate Members W". Wilkes University Election Statistics Project. Wilkes University.

Harry White (1834-1920) - Find a Grave Memorial