Theodore F. White was born in Morristown, Pennsylvania, in 1844, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James White. T.F. White was raised on his father’s farm and after completing his public school studies, he took up mining engineering and graduated from the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania in 1862. During the invasion of the state by the Confederate Army, he enlisted in the Pennsylvania State Militia.
Following the Civil War, Mr. White went to Nevada where he worked for three years as the superintendent of a mine, after which he was with the Memphis and El Paso Railroad and came to California for the purpose of assisting in the building of the railroad through to San Diego. Upon completion of that project he became the chief clerk and draftsman in the surveyor general’s office in Arizona, but soon afterward resumed field work which he followed for ten ears. He was the president of the Chiracua Cattle Company of Arizona.
Mr. White and Miss Annie Maxwell, daughter of a San Francisco merchant, were married in 1876 in San Diego. They had four children. In order that he might be nearer his home and family, Mr. White abandoned his field work and returned to San Diego where he was temporarily engaged in the cattle business. In 1891 they moved to Chino where Mr. White became the superintendent of the Chino Land and Water Company. Two years later he accepted the position of manager of the L.W. Blinn Lumber Company, which was established in 1891. The Whites reside in an attractive home on Seventh Street in Chino. In 1898 White was selected to represent the Fourth District on the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors. He served in this capacity from January 2, 1899 to January 5, 1903, succeeding Oscar Newberg and being succeeded by Samuel Pine. Mr. White proved to be a man of great public spirit and was intensely interested in programs which were beneficial to the people. He sponsored highway construction and became known as the “father of oiled roads” in California. He was prominent in the political life of the county.
Following his term of office as a county supervisor, White was a road construction contractor and lived in other parts of the state for about twelve years. On January 27, 1914, while inspecting the flood damage to a road he was constructing in Colton, he slipped and fell into the swollen Lytle Creek at Eighth and Johnson Street and drowned. He was 69 years old.
He was survived by his wife and four children, Frederick P., an engineer and machinist with the Edison Company in Los Angeles, Florence (Mrs. C.V. Newman), Edith and Leonard. At the time of his death, the Whites resided at 1526 Wilcox Avenue in Hollywood.
Mr. White was a member of the Blue Lodge and Chapter, F. and A.M and was an Elder in the Christian Church.