History of Mantua, (Portage County) Ohio United States of America

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Biographies:

Emerson Fibridge White, educator, was born in Mantua, Ohio, Jan. 10, 1829; son of Jones and Sarah (McGregory) White; grandson of Galvin and Phoebe (Titus) White and a descendant of Capt. Thomas White, who came to Weymouth, Mass., from England as early as 1632. He attended the common schools and the academy at Twinsburg, Ohio, 1846, and matriculated at Cleveland university in 1848, but left in his senior year to become principal of a granunar school in Cleveland. He was married, July 26, 1853, to Mary Ann, daughter of Henry M. and Clara (Church) Sabin of Hudson, Ohio. He was principal of the Central High school of Cleveland, 1853-56; superindendent of public schools, Portsmouth, Ohio, 1856-60; Ohio state school commissioner, 1863-66; editor of the Ohio Educationtal Monthly, 1861-75; president of Purdue university, Lafayette, Ind., 1876-83, and superintendent of the public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, 1886-89. The honorary degree of A.M. was conferred upon him by Marietta, 1857, and by Western Reserve, 1865, and that of LL.D. by the University of Indiana, 1876, and in the same year by Marietta, of which latter college he was a trustee, 1869-73. He was president of the Ohio Teacher's Association, 1863; of the National Superintendent's association, 1868; the National Educational association, 1872, and of the National Council of Education, 1884-86. He was editor and proprietor of the Ohio Eucational Monthly, 1861-75, and of the National Teacher, 1870-75, and the author of the memorial and bill creating the National Bureau of Education, presented to congress in 1866. He also published: A Series of Mathematical TextBooks (1870-86); New Complete Arithmetic (1883); Oral Lessons in Number (1884); Revived School Records (1886); Elements of Pedagogy (1886); First Book of Arithmetic (1890); School Management (1893); Elements of Geometry (1895); School Algebra (1896); the Art of Teaching (1901). He died in Columbus, Ohio, Oct. 21, 1902.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Emerson Edbridge White, Educator, Editor, etc., was born in Mantua, Portage county, Ohio, January 10th, 1829. His parents, Jonas White and Sarah (Gregory) White, natives of Massachusetts, were farmers in moderate circumstances. Until he had reached his eighteenth year he worked on the farm, and during this period secured an elementary education at the district school. When but seventeen years of age he assumed the role of teacher, and taught school for a salary of nine dollars per month, with the privilege of "boarding around." In the following summer he obtained the consent of his parents to leave home for the purpose of obtaining a more thorough education. Most of the several succeeding years he spent in the Trownsburg Academy and in college, defraying attendant expenses by teaching and by working in haying and harvesting. In the autumn of 1851 he suspended his studies in the Cleveland University in order to take charge temporarily of the classes in mathematics in that institution, and also to fill the place of the principal of one of the Cleveland grammar schools, who, on account of ill health, had secured a leave of absence for two months. At the close of these engagements, he was surprised by the unsolicited appointment to the Principalship of a new grammar school then about to be opened in Cleveland. As a result he abandoned reluctantly his purpose of graduating at the next commencement, and accepted the appointment, entering upon the duties of his new position in January, 1852. His intention, however, was to teach but a few terms, and then enter upon the study of law. In 1854 he resigned his position, but was at once appointed Principal of the Central High School, with a salary of one thousand dollars per annum. He acted in that capacity until 1856, in which year he accepted the Superintendency of the Public Schools of Portsmouth, Ohio, filling the position for nearly four years. Early in 1861 he removed to Columbus, to take charge of the Ohio Educational Monthly, which he conducted for more than fourteen years, making it one of the best and most influential educational journals in the country. In October, 1870, he started a national edition of the monthly, with the title of The National Teacher. In 1875 he sold both editions of his journal to Hon. W. D. Henkle, of Salem, Ohio. In 1863 he was appointed State Commissioner of Common Schools, to fill the unexpired term of Commissioner Cathcart, resigned. In the first year of his incumbency he secured an important revision of the General School Law. Among the new provisions incorporated was one establishing the present institute system of Ohio; also another creating a State Board of Examiners. In 1865 the General Assembly passed a joint resolution instructing the Commissioner of Common Schools to report to the next General Assembly the organization and results of the best Normal Schools in the United States and in other countries, and also to submit a plan of organizing one or more efficient Normal Schools in the State of Ohio. In compliance with those instructions he visited the Normal Schools in several of the States, and his special report on the subject under consideration was submitted in January, 1866. In the third and last year of his incumbency, he prepared a codified edition of the school law, with opinions, instructions, blank forms, etc., the whole constituting a valuable manual for school officers in the administration of the school system. Since the close of his official term in February, 1866, he has devoted his time to his journal, to lecturing in Teachers' Institutes, and to other work of a literary and educational nature. He has been invited to take charge of several institutions, including four State Normal Schools, and to accept the superintendency of several city schools, but he has preferred to prosecute a chosen work which, in his opinion, was more important and useful. He has exercised a wide and salutary influence upon the cause of education, and is recognized as one of the leading educators of the country. He was President of the Ohio Teachers' Association in 1863, of the National Superintendents' Association in 1868, presiding at the meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee; and of the National Educational Association in 1872, presiding at the meeting held in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1866 he read a paper on "A National Bureau of Education," before the National Superintendents' Association, at a meeting held in Washington, District of Columbia. The paper was finally adopted by the association as an expression of its views on the subject, and he was appointed Chairman of a Committee to memorialize Congress on the importance of establishing such an office. He then drafted the memorial, and also a bill, both of which were introduced into Congress by Hon. James A. Garfield, of Ohio. This bill, with immaterial amendments, was subsequently passed by Congress, and is now the law under which the bureau is administered. He is the author of "A Class-Book of Geography," first published in 1853; the larger portion of "Bryant and Stratton's Commercial Arithmetic," published in 1860; "White's School Registers and Records;" "White's Graded School Arithmetics," published in 1870; and a "Manual of Arithmetic for Teachers," published in 1876. In addition to his many important and valuable labors as a writer and educator, he has for many years past, through his exertions and laudable actions in other public fields, stood prominently before the community not alone of Ohio, but also of many of the environing States, which esteem and admire him as a public-spirited, enterprising and useful citizen, while his sound scholarly attainments have won for him the respect of all interested in the literary development of the United States. He has a high reputation as a public speaker, and is one of the most popular institute instructors in the country. He was married, July 26th, 1853, to Mary Ann Sabin, of Hudson, Ohio, by whom he has had five children--three sons and two daughters.

From: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Ohio of the Nineteenth Century. Columbus, OH, USA: Galaxy Publishing Co., 1876.