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Part of the American
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Rhoda Elizabeth Waterman White
Among the women who were distinguished for their efforts for
charity, for the poor and afflicted, and who wielded a wide
influence through her domestic life and who commands the
admiration of all as a wife, mother and friend, may be mentioned
Mrs. White. Her mother was the daughter of General Whitney, a
wealthy land owner. Her father was General Waterman, one of the
earliest settlers of Binghamton, New York. Mrs. James W. White's
name before her marriage was Rhoda Elizabeth Waterman, and when
quite young she married James W. White a young lawyer of Irish
descent and a nephew of General Griffin, author of The
Collegians."
Mr. and Mrs. White took up their residence in the city of New
York in 1834, and this home was known among her friends as
"Castle Comfort." Mrs. White considered it her most sacred duty
to God and her husband to deepen, purify and increase in her own
heart and in his, the conjugal affection which bound them
together and which she prized as Heaven's best gift. We regret
that this idea and conception of married life is not more
general today. In 1853 Mrs. White arranged a private concert in
Niblo's salon in aid of charity, at which Madame Sontag sang;
and this proved the great fashionable event of the season.
In 1956 Mrs. White was solicited by the Sisters of Charity to
aid them in the rebuilding of their hospital, and a meeting of
the ladies representing the different Catholic churches was
called for the purpose of carrying out Mrs. White's plan for a
fair to be held in the Crystal Palace. A storm of opposition
greeted this proposal but this did not deter Mrs. White from
proceeding with the plan and, though the ladies manifested their
opposition to the very hour of the opening of the fair, this
great ''Charity Fair" cleared thirty-four thousand dollars, a
splendid memorial of the indomitable energy, practical wisdom
and noble zeal of the ruling spirit of this enterprise. At the
close of the fair the sisters urged upon Mrs. White the
acceptance of a massive piece of silver as a mark of their
gratitude, but she declined the gift and asked that it be
disposed of for the benefit of the hospital.
In 1859, Mrs. White was president of an association which
brought to a successful ending a large fair in aid of the
Sisters of Mercy which was held in the Academy of Music. One of
Mrs. White's contributions was a large volume, elegantly bound
and valued at twenty-five hundred dollars, containing the rarest
and most valuable autographs ever collected. The book was drawn
in a lottery after a large sum had been raised by the sale of
tickets and the fortunate winner presented it to the original
donor.
Mrs. White carried on during her lifetime an extensive
correspondence with the learned, gifted and distinguished
persons of this country and Europe, and some have called her
"the Sevigne of the United States." Among these correspondents
may be mentioned President Lincoln.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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