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Aaron White Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-163

Scope and Contents

Contains the papers of Aaron White and his family. He was a birthright member of Pasquotank Monthly Meeting, N.C., and transferred to Milford Monthly Meeting, Indiana, in 1829. The Whites were active in Quaker affairs and concerns, including abolition and controversies within Indiana Yearly Meeting. Aaron, as the oldest son in his family, played a central role in the family both in business and personal matters. The bulk of the collection is the correspondence of Aaron and Margaret White, letters sent and received. Their extended family and concerns include relatives in Indiana, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. The letters chronicle the migration of Quakers to the mid-West as well as touch on Quaker activities and issues, slavery in North Carolina, and personal concerns through three generations. Prominent Quaker correspondents include Thomas Shillitoe, Thomas Edgerton, Josiah Forster, and Elijah Coffin. Also of interest are business papers and some family genealogical information on the White, Moore, Coffin, Nixon, and Fletcher families.

Organization: Organized in three series: 1. Biographical and Genealogical 2. Correspondence 3. Miscellaneous Papers

Dates

  • 1805-1966

Creator

Limitations on Accessing the Collection

Collection is open for research.

Copyright and Rights Information

Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.

Biographical / Historical

Aaron White was the son of Edmund and Mary (Morris) White of Pasquotank County, North Carolina. Edmund White (d. 1812) of Perquimans Monthly Meeting. married Mary Morris (d. 1813) under the care of Pasquotank Monthly Meeting in 1792. They had eight children: Aaron (born 1793, married Margaret Fletcher); Edmund (born 1896, married Margaret Nixon); Miriam (1797-1800); Joseph Morris (b. 1800); Mary (b. 1801, married Caleb White); Alfred (b. 1804-1844, married Abigail Pritchard); Elizabeth (b. 1806, married Daniel Tisdale); and Margaret Scott (1811-1830, married Joseph Elliott).

Aaron White married Margaret Fletcher (1796-1854), daughter of Joshua and Margaret Fletcher, of Perquimans Monthly Meeting in 1813, and they had seven children born in North Carolina, viz: Albert (1817-1840, married Gulielma Hiatt); Martha (1819-1820); Morris (1821-1822); Marcia (b. 1823, married Charles Moore); Oliver (1825-1825); Catherine (b. and d. 1827); and Susannah (1828-1829). In 1829, the family received a certificate of removal from Pasquotank MM to Milford MM in Wayne County, Indiana. Children born in Indiana under the care of Milford MM were: Richard (b. 1829, married Mary A. Underhill); Augustus (1832-1833); Deborah (1834-1888, married David Sutton); and Lemuel (b. and d. 1838). Margaret and Aaron White also raised the three orphaned children of Margaret’s brother, William (1794-1826) who died in a shipwreck. They were: Samuel Francis (referred to as Francis in some family correspondence), Margaret Ann, and Sarah Nixon Fletcher. The Whites also took into their household two other nephews from North Carolina, Daniel T. (b. 1835) and William E. White (b. 1836) who were the children of Aaron’s younger brother Alfred and his second wife, Mary. Mary White married secondly to Henry Haskett. Margaret White died in 1854, and Aaron married a second time in 1858 to Rachel P. Moore of Milford Monthly Meeting.

Of Aaron and Margaret White’s eleven children, only four survived to maturity, and their oldest child, Albert (1817-1840) died shortly after his marriage. Daughter Marcia married Charles Moore of Milford Monthly Meeting in 1839; Richard married Mary A. Underhill of Miami Monthly Meeting in 1853; and Deborah married David Sutton in 1859.

Marcia and Charles Moore had nine children. Daughter Deborah (1855-) in 1879 married William Furnas of Fairfield Monthly Meeting, Indiana. They had three children, including Paul F. Furnas (1889-1960) who inherited some of the family papers and was comptroller for Earlham University. Their youngest child, Marcia Frances Moore, in 1892 married Don Carlos Barrett under the care of Whitewater Monthly Meeting, and additional papers apparently were preserved by her.

Extent

2 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

Language

English

Overview

Contains the papers of Aaron White (1793-1863) and his family. He was a birthright member of Pasquotank Monthly Meeting, N.C., and transferred to Milford Monthly Meeting, Indiana, in 1829. The Whites were active in Quaker affairs and concerns, including abolition and controversies within Indiana Yearly Meeting. Aaron, as the oldest son in his family, played a central role in the family both in business and personal matters. The bulk of the collection is the correspondence of Aaron and Margaret White, letters sent and received. Their extended family and concerns include relatives in Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The letters chronicle the migration of Quakers to the mid-West as well as touch on Quaker activities and issues, slavery in North Carolina, and personal concerns through three generations. Prominent Quaker correspondents include Thomas Shillitoe, Thomas Edgerton, Josiah Forster, and Elijah Coffin. Also of interest are business papers and some family genealogical information on the White, Moore, Coffin, Nixon, and Fletcher families.

Physical Location

For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Libraries' online catalog: http://tripod.brynmawr.edu

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Deposit. Donor: Betty Furnas Date: 1966. Donor: Barrett family

The collection was given by the Betty Furnas, who was the widow of Paul J. Furnas who died in 1960. He was a descendent of Aaron White by his daughter Marcia who married Charles Moore in Milford MM. Paul J. Furnas was the son of their daughter, Deborah Moore who married William Furnas of Fairfield Monthly Meeting. This material includes family correspondence and business correspondence of Aaron White. Apparently about the same time, other material from other descendents of Aaron and Margaret White were given by the family of Deborah’s sister, Marcia Frances Moore who married Don Carlos Barrett, and Thomas A. Moore’s son Charles H. Moore. This material included family letters to Margaret White and Aaron’s letterbooks. There is also some material from Samuel Francis Fletcher who was raised in the household of Aaron White and married Elizabeth Dix Hiatt.

Processing Information

Initially, White Family Papers were given by Betty Furnas, the widow of Paul Furnas in 1966. Additional family papers were apparently added to the collection shortly thereafter but were kept as two separate units. The collection was originally named Furnas Family Papers, also known as Furnas-Barrett Family Papers. In 1987, the collection was renamed the Aaron White Family Papers. In 2002, the collection was reorganized and the correspondence filed chronologically. A new finding aid was produced.

Title
Aaron White Family Papers, 1805-1966
Date
2004
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Revision Statements

  • 2020: Updated outdated, harmful terminology related to enslavement, except where it appears in a title, quotation, or subject heading.

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