E. E. White

E. E. White, manager and treasurer of the Fertile Lumber Company, con­ducting a profitable and growing business at Fertile, Worth county, was born on the 25th of February, 1871, in Fertile township, his parents being Isaac and Barbara (McCulley) White, both of whom were natives of Gallipolis, Ohio, where they were reared and married. At an early period they came west to Iowa, reaching this state in 1846 and establishing their home in Monticello, Jones county. In 1868 they removed to Cerro Gordo county, where they re­sided, however, for only about a year. On the expiration of that period they came to Worth county and the father purchased a farm a mile west of Fertile. There they continued to reside until the mother's death, which occurred on the old homestead in 1895. The father afterward broke up housekeeping and made his home among his children throughout his remaining days, his death occurring in Oregon in 1902. While never a politician in the sense of seeking office, he was always an active worker for the temperance cause and did much to keep down the saloon element and influence in Fertile. He always stood for the right and never hesitated to espouse a cause in which he believed.

E. E. White of this review supplemented his district school training by a course of study in Drake University at Des Moines. Through the period of his youth he remained largely at home assisting his father and after his text­books were put aside he continued to be the active helper of his father until his mother's death in 1895. When the old home was abandoned he removed to Fertile and for some years worked at the carpenter's trade, after which he was variously employed. In 1904 he went to the Pacific coast and settled at Corvallis, Oregon, where he was engaged in sawmilling and planing mill work for three years. In 1907, however, he returned to Iowa and took up his abode in Fertile. The same year he was made superintendent of the Fertile Clay & Peat Company, in which capacity he served for about a year, and during the following two years he worked at the carpenter's trade. In the fall of 1910 he accepted the management of the Fertile Lumber Company and was elected its treasurer. In this connection he is conducting an important business interest and in control thereof he displays marked energy, business discernment and keen sagacity, substantial success attending his efforts in this direction. He also owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Davidson, province of Saskatchewan, Canada.

In 1898 Mr. White was united in marriage to Miss Rena Fankell, a daughter of William K. Fankell, one of the early settlers of Cerro Gordo county. To this union have been born four daughters and one son, of whom the four daugh­ters survive, namely: Gail, Floy, Dorothy and Frances, all at home.

In politics Mr. White is a socialist and is the present mayor of Fertile, in which capacity he has served for three terms, giving to the city a business­ like and progressive administration as is indicated in the fact of his frequent re- elections to the office. He is a member of the lodge of the American Yeomen and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He is a very busy man by reason of his extensive commercial and agricultural interests and also owing to his official duties. Alert and energetic, he accomplishes what he purposes and is accounted one of the leading and representative citizens of this section of the state. He stands at all times for justice and right as he sees them and his labors are far-reaching and resultant. Thirty years ago he started the first list for a cornet band, which soon became a credit to the town. Later he was the first to get in touch with the Redpath lecture bureau of Cedar Rapids and also the Standard of Des Moines, and from this start Fertile has had a lecture course almost every winter since 1896. Mr. White also started the first and only public library in Fertile in February, 1912, and there are now six hundred volumes in this library. When first elected mayor, he started a movement against the cigarette curse in the little town of Fertile, and so successful was his work that during the year of 1917-18 there has not been one cigarette smoker in the high school. In 1915 Mr. White took the initiative in working for a consolidated school in Fertile. In October of that year the people of the newly proposed district voted three to one for the consolidated school and the following December the members of the newly elected board began a canvass for a bond not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars for the school building. Mr. White, however, began another petition for a larger district in order that a proper sized school building might be had. He was successful in getting this through and for that the new district was rewarded with a forty thousand dollar school building, which is none too large

SOURCE: HISTORY OF MITCHELL AND WORTH COUNTIES, IOWA, 1918, VOL. II; Pages 61 & 62

Transcribed by Gordon Felland, September 2, 2006