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Eliza Matilda Chandler White

Eliza Matilda Chandler White (Mrs. Stephen Van Culen White), the daughter of Hiram and Juliana (Humiston) Chandler, was born in Marietta, Ohio, May 1, 1831. Her father was a descendant of Captain Miles Standish, who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Mayflower in 1620, and his wife, Barbara. Their son, Alexander, married Sarah, the daughter of John and Priscilla (Mullins) Alden, both Mayflower Pilgrims. Elizabeth, the daughter of Alexander and Sarah Standish, married Samuel Delano and their daughter, Elizabeth, was the wife of Joseph Chandler, 3d. Their son, Benjamin Chandler (killed at the Battle of Bennington, Vermont), and his wife, Elizabeth Jeffries, were the parents of Joseph Chandler, who married Patient Mary Andrews, and their son was Hiram Chandler, born in Vermont, September 4, 1797. Juliana Humiston, Hiram Chandler's wife, was born April 24, 1803. She was descended from Matthias Hitchcock, one of the founders of New Haven, Connecticut, who came from England to Boston, Massachusetts, on the Susan and Ellen in 1635. His son, John Hitchcock, married Abigail Merriman. They were the parents of Matthias, who married Thankful Andrews, and the grandparents of Hannah Hitchcock, whose husband was James Humiston of New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Henry Humiston. Jason Humiston, the son of James and Hannah, married Amy Peck, and they were the parents of Juliana, the wife of Hiram Chandler.

Eliza Matilda Chandler was educated at Monticello Seminary, Godfrey, Illinois, and taught school until her marriage on February 24, 1857, at Grafton, Illinois, to Stephen Van Culen White, a lawyer who attained wide prominence in his profession and was during the latter part of his life an influential member of the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. White was born in Chathan County, North Carolina, August 1, 1831, son of Hiram White and his wife, Julia Brewer, who was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell. During their early married life Mr. and Mrs. White lived in Missouri at a time when the question of slavery was causing much excitement and public feeling. Mrs. White favored the abolition of slavery and strove personally to raise the educational status of the negroes by giving to all whom she could reach lessons in reading. She bravely persisted in her teaching, although at the time, it was a prison offense in Missouri. The pleasure in helping, in a practical way, the downtrodden and the needy characterized Mrs. White's entire life.

After a short period of residence in Des Moines, Iowa, Mr. and Mrs. White moved to Brooklyn, New York, and Mrs. White continued to be among the first to aid any worthy charity. In 1881 she founded the Brooklyn Home for Consumptives, and, assisted by her husband, raised the greater part of its endowment fund of $100,000. At the time of Mrs. White's death in 1907 the institution owned its own spacious grounds and buildings and was caring for more than 110 men, women, and children. Mrs. White's ability to give practical assistance was also evidenced in the many forms of patriotic work in which she engaged. When, in 1858, the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union was formed to purchase Mt. Vernon as a national monument, Mrs. White worked for several years to aid in raising the fund. She was the founder of the Fort Greene Chapter (Brooklyn) of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which grew to have a membership of over two hundred, was at the head of the Prison Ship Martyrs Committee of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and with the aid of her husband secured an appropriation from New York State and another from the United States government, and received a sufficient sum by private subscriptions, to erect the monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, New York. She was a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the Colonial Daughters of the Seventeenth Century, and many other patriotic and literary societies. Mr. and Mrs. White were the parents of two children: Jennie Chandler White, wife of Franklin W. Hopkins of Alpine, New Jersey (born in Des Moines, Iowa, March 10, 1860), and Arthur White (born in Brooklyn, New York, August 2, 1865).

Ref: The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women: Volume I White, Eliza Matilda Chandler Educational Workpage