52 ancestors Week 28 – Howard White – He got too cold

Howard White, my 1^st cousin thrice removed, was the son of William Burgess WHITE, Sr. (1825-1891) and Sarah Ann (Sally) PRICE WHITE (1831-1906). He was the middle child of the seven children born to William and Sally, and he was born in September 1857.

Howard lived in Montgomery County, Maryland his entire life. He went to school and learned to read and write. And he learned blacksmithing. His father was a farmer.

When Howard was 24 he married Alice Virginia TRUNDLE. That was in 1881. Over the next 7 years, Alice had four children: William LaRue, Alice Virginia, Thomas Oliver, and Henry Granville.

A successful man

Howard continued working as a blacksmith and was obviously successful at it since in the 1900 census Howard owned his own house, free of a mortgage. He and his family were living in Barnesville in Montgomery County at that time. He was 43 years old in 1900.

I don’t know why or when, but at some point between 1900 and 1904, Howard became a Deputy Sheriff in Montgomery County. Perhaps it was on an as-needed basis, or perhaps he was tired of being a blacksmith, or perhaps something else.

Too cold for Howard…or anyone else

The winters of 1903/1904 and 1904/1905 are two of the coldest winters on record for Maryland. The average temperature in Frederick, Maryland, for the winter of 03/04 was 20.4 °F. Frederick is about 30 miles north of Barnesville, where Howard lived. Just imagine those temperatures with no central heating, drafty houses, and transportation being on foot or in a horse drawn wagon or carriage. Brrrrr.

 

 

 

 

For reasons unknown, Howard was overexposed to the cold on the night of January 4, 1904. Was he out helping someone? Did he slip and fall and go unnoticed? Had it been snowing or sleeting? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t have taken long in those temperatures for anyone to get too cold even without snow or ice falling.

According to the Evening Star newspaper, both his feet and one hand were badly frozen from his time in the cold. The paper said, ‘amputation of one and possibly both feet will, it is thought, be necessary. His exact condition will not be known for several days.’

Less than two weeks later, in the January 16, 1904 edition of The News from Frederick Maryland, it was reported that ‘Mr. Howard White, of near here, is critically ill.’ Howard did not recover. He was just 46 years old.

What else I know of Howard

I don’t know exactly the date Howard died, but on February 6, his brother William Burgess WHITE, Jr. was named as the administrator of Howard’s property, according to the Evening Star.

I was unable to locate a death notice or obituary for Howard, but I do know that he is buried at Monocacy Cemetery in Beallsville, Maryland, which is in Montgomery County. Many more of my WHITE descendants are buried there as well.

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