Some may remember Dr. Thomas R. White. Others may have seen that name on the Main Street Bridge over Fall Creek in Pendleton and wondered who he was. Still others may know nothing at all about the man.
Thomas R. White was born in Athy County, Kildare, Ireland, on July 27, 1869. Both his father and grandfather were Presbyterian ministers in Ireland. His early education took place at the Farra School in County West Meade, Ireland.
On Christmas 1889, at age 20, he sailed from Ireland for Canada to attend Knox College and Toronto University. Shortly thereafter he worked in a slaughterhouse in Chicago to pay his way through McCormack Seminary. He received his doctorate degree in 1896 and was ordained into the ministry as a Presbyterian pastor. That same year he married his first wife, Emily Suzette Andres of Chicago.
His first assignment was as a supply minister in Cicero in Hamilton County. Later, he served a mission in the lead mining region near Elizabeth, Illinois.
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It was during that time in 1901, that he was given a surprise opportunity to travel back to Ireland. He had longed to see his aging parents. It had been 12 years since he left them.
His wife and the treasurer of the church he was serving at the time were the only ones that were aware of his desire to return to Ireland.
To his surprise arrangements had been made by the man he had worked for in the slaughterhouse during his seminary years. He was to travel abroad as a worker on a ship bearing cattle from the United States to Britain.
There is a detailedaccount of this trip on display at the museum. In it he states he traveled 9,000 miles in 60 days and spent only $40.78.
In 1907, he was assigned to the First Presbyterian Church of Bloomington. Five years later he was named chaplain of Indiana University.
A few months later, he joined the 1st Indiana National Guard and served as commander to a troop of IU students patrolling the Mexican border at Yanogrande during the crisis of 1916.
In 1918, he went overseas as a civilian chaplain of the American Red Cross. He served at the 114th Evacuation Hospital near the battle of the Argonne Forest during World War I.
There he “laid away” 500 men wrapped in their blankets, in an old stone quarry converted into a graveyard.
After World War I, he returned to Indiana and served at 1st Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis for three years, then 10 years at Meridian Heights Presbyterian Church, also in Indianapolis.
He and his first wife had three daughters and one son. She passed away in 1928. He was married to his second wife, Valette Miller of Indianapolis, in 1930.
In 1934, Dr. White was appointed chaplain of the Indiana State Reformatory in Pendleton by then Gov. Paul V. McNut. It was during this portion of his life and career that he came to know Pendleton as home. His home was on 5½ acres of land along the banks of Fall Creek. The house still stands today on North Main Street and West Water Street in Pendleton. The bridge just north of the house now bears his name.
In his own words, “My work at the reformatory tops off everything else I ever did. I know the rough side of things and learned to meet with the prisoners on the same level. The job wasn’t just to preach and pray to them, it was much more.”
He felt it important that each prisoner be given the opportunity to complete a high school education while incarcerated.
It was during his 12years at the prison that a school was established. At one graduation ceremony the prison band played “The Little Irishman,” a song written for White by an inmate.
Today the school bears his name as does each diploma handed to an inmate.
White was forced to retire from the Reformatory at age 77. He is quoted as saying, “They can force me to retire, but they could not make me quit.”
For at least 15 years after his retirement he continued to care for “his boys” as he called them. He was known for collecting magazines from the Pendleton community delivering them to the inmates on Sunday afternoons during visits.
At age 100, he traveled by ship back to his home in Ireland and preached at the Presbyterian church where his grandfather had once been pastor during a ceremony for the 250th anniversary of that church.
He chose to live out his life inPendleton. With his love of education and reading, he was a frequent visitor at the local library and would be humbled to know how many books were donated in his memory at the time of his death.
He passed away at his home, which he fondly called “Whitecroft,” on June 19, 1973, just a few weeks shy of his 104th birthday. He was Pendleton’s oldest citizen and was also the oldest member of the Lions Club International.
One cannot help but contemplate just how many lives were impacted by this one “Little Irishman.”
Jo Scott is a Pendleton Historical Museum board member.