Submitted by Robert A. Stonerock.
FATHER AND CHILDREN
Separated thirty-seven years and are reunited thru
PENSION DEPARTMENT.
J.C. White Came to Home of His Daughter,
Mrs. Fowler -
When Discharged From the Army
Was Told His Family Had Died of Smallpox.
After 37 years, Joseph C. White, an old soldier long mourned as dead, returned to this city Wednesday to meet his children whom he supposed were also numbered with the great majority.
Mr. White came to the home of his daughter, Mrs. Fowler, and the meeting with his children, which was brought about thru the pension department, was very affecting.
A tall, angular looking man with a military air about him, garbed in the clothing of a soldier with the insignia of the G.A.R. pinned to his coat lapel,
appeared in the alleyway south of Mill street, leading into Canal street, and looking wistfully
towards a little house whitened with time. He walked toward it and knocked. The door was opened by Mrs. Edward Fowler.
"Is this you, Sally Sophia?" exclaimed the old soldier, "if it is, I am your father."
Mrs. Fowler was so suprised she could not speak as she had long ago supposed her father was dead.
The mother died nearly 30 years ago at Westfall leaving four children. Mrs. Fowler was seven years old.
After the death of the mother the children separated. Mrs. Fowler until her marriage lived with her grandparents, William Weethee and wife. Of the three
brothers, Joseph White went to Columbus and lost his life in a gasoline explosion two years ago; Charles White lives at Plain City and William White at Williamsport.
The children had never received any pension from the government. They made application thru Attorney Adolph Goldfredrick who recently a letter from the pension department saying that Joseph C. White was very much alive and drawing a pension of $12.00 a month. His residence was given as Glen Easton, Marshall county, WVa. Mrs. Fowler wrote to her father and he answered the letter in person. Mrs. Fowler immediately notified her brother at Williamsport and there was a joyfull family reunion Thursday evening.
Mr. White said to a UNION-HERALD repoter: "I enlisted
in 1862 at Athens in Company B, 193rd O.V.I., and went to Charleston, W. Va. After my time was out I reenlisted in Company A, 193 rd. O.V.I., at Chillicothe in 1864 to capture Morgan. After the war I went to West Virginia and settled at Glen Easton where I have resided ever since. I tried to find my wife and children at Athens when I returned from the war but I could not locate them.
"During the war there was an epidemic of smallpox in Athens and my family fled, coming to this county and settling near Westfall.
"I was told by my old neighbors that they had all died of the
disease.
"Thru the pension department at Washington I learned that
children of Joseph C. White had applied for a pension and that is how I located them.
"I was born in Zanesville June 13, 1840 and married when
I was 16 years of age Lisena Withee of Athens. As soon as I can wind up my affairs at Glen Easton I expect to return here and live with my children."
EPILOGUE:
Joseph Conley WHITE married Rhoda Jane CROW on July 28, 1889 in Moundsville, West Virginia. They lived in the Meade District near Lynn Camp. Rhoda was the daughter of Henry and Hannah RUCKMAN CROW. Joseph C. White did move back to Circleville, Ohio to be with his children shortly after his visit there in 1903. Rhoda did not make the move to Circleville with him. Joseph C. White died on December 27, 1915 in Circleville, Ohio.