The father, John H. White, was brought west in 1827 when six years old, to Indiana, in 1842 came to Mulkeytown in Franklin County, and the year following to Marion where he was a cabinet maker and carpenter. He was a soldier in the Mexican war although the war was over before they got there. In 1852, he was appointed as county clerk to fill a vacancy, and was elected and re-elected to the same office.
Amzi F. White (a.k.a A. F. or Zi) was born on September 4, 1847 and was reared to manhood in Southern Illinois.
In 1850, two year old Amzi was listed as Franklin A. in the census records. He had an older sister Elizabeth who was 4 and a younger brother, Alonzo, who was one. His father, John H. White, was 29 and his mother, Emily A., was 22. John was a cabinet maker born in Connecticut. Emily was born in Tennessee.
In the 1860 census, Amzi was 12 years old. His father John White was serving as county clerk and had real estate valued at $6,000 and personal property at $2,860. Elizabeth and Alonzo were not listed on this census.
In 1861, Amzi’s father, John, resigned as county clerk, was made lieutenant-colonel of the Thirty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry under the command of John A. Logan, and was killed at Fort Donelson, Tenn., on February 15, 1862. His regiment has since been highly recognized for the bravery of its men and officers.
When John White was killed at Fort Donelson in 1862, Amzi is said to have entered the regiment as the youngest soldier of them all. However, Illinois muster records show Amzi mustering into his father’s regiment on February 10, 1864 at the age of 18 and mustering out Jul 19, 1865. He then followed the drug business in Marion.
Amzi’s widowed mother, Emily, remarried in 1867 to William N. Mitchell who was then the postmaster at Marion. John and Emily’s daughter, Lilly White, later married James C. Mitchell (William Mitchell’s son) who served as Circuit Clerk for the county from 1886-1894 and cashier of the First National Bank (the building currently occupied by the Bank of Marion). Lilly died in 1901 leaving seven children, the Mitchells were the ancestors of many prominent Marion citizens today.
In 1868-69, Amzi served as the Marion Postmaster. After that he was in the real estate business with great success.
By the 1870 census, Amzi was living with his mother and stepfather, William Mitchell.
On April 26, 1871, Amzi married Nannie L. Pulley, of Marion, daughter of James Dennis Pulley (1845-bef 1870) and Amanda Goodall (1838). Nannie was born September 14, 1851. Amanda and James Pulley had 8 children: Sarah Ann (Mrs. John M.) Young, William J. Pulley, John H. Pulley, Nannie (Mrs. Amzi F.) White, Annette Pulley, James D. and Charles and Monroe C. Pulley (twins). Amanda had 3 grandchildren to whom “she was a mother”: James M. Young, Mrs. Laura Snider and Charles F. Young. These were the children of John M. and Nannie Young, their only daughter who died young. They adopted and raised three orphan children. James Pulley was a member of the G. A. R. (Civil War Vet), and he and his wife were members of the Christian Church.
In the 1870 census before marrying Amzi, 18 year old Nannie L. Pulley, was living with her mother, Amanda, in a hotel or boarding house which her mother was running. There were 15 people living in the house and it may be the Pulley House, a hotel in Marion.
The Illinois Central railroad received more than nine thousand acres of land in Grassy Township in a land grant to assist in building their main line. Amzi F. White was named agent to convey these lands to individual purchasers. Two post offices were added as a further inducement to settlers, Wolf Creek and Cottage Home. Zi White secured the post office to aid his real estate sales in the neighborhood, Cottage Home in Grassy Township which was established February 23, 1872 with Mr. White as its first postmaster.
An article appearing in the Egyptian Press paper in June 1876, stated, “A young man named Jones tried to buy a revolver from Tom Johnson, colored, for $3.25…gave him a $20 bill, but couldn’t get the bill changed … he left and Amzi White caught up with him a ½ mile north of town … he is in jail, some say the bill is good, others say not.”
The Black Hills expedition of 1877 to discover gold, consisting of G.W.C. McCoy, G. W. McCoy, W.P. Springs, W.B. Phillips, P.M .Teague, Stephen Stilley, Amzi F. White, Brice Holland and William J. Aikman left Marion on March 29, 1877 by train to catch a steamer in St. Louis. In August of 1877, A. F. White wrote from the Black Hills that he would soon return to Marion. The redskins had been in close quarters with the miners and killed one of McCoy’s mules taken from St. Louis with the Marion delegates last spring. The Marion Monitor further reported on October 11, 1877 that Zi White had returned from the Black Hills.
On July 11, 1878 A.F. White witnessed the hanging of Harrison B. Burklow at Vienna for the murder of David Wagoner at Foreman, Illinois, south of Vienna the previous year.
In the census of 1880 the White’s appear to be living in a hotel or boarding house that is run by Nannie’s mother Amanda.
In July of 1882 the Marion Monitor reported that A. F. White had returned home from Battle Creek, Michigan and that Mrs. White would probably stay several weeks longer.
The following article extracted from the Egyptian Press is included to demonstrate how times have changed in the last one hundred and twenty-five years. “Lost between courthouse and my residence. Two $20 bills wrapped together. Finder will be suitably rewarded.” A. F. White.
Amzi took City Marshall, J.D. Pulley, to Dwight for being drunk and falsely imprisoning people. This was Pulley’s second time to Dwight for alcohol treatment. J.D. Pulley was Amzi’s brother –in-law.
Amzi F. White interested a gentleman named John W. Gates in coal lands after his work for the Illinois Central was completed around Cottage Home. Mr. Gates’ fortune was made when he later became a salesman for the inventor of barbed wire.
As early as 1893, owing to the efforts of A. F. White, John Goodall and other enterprising and public spirited citizens, attention was effectively directed to the immense coal fields of Williamson County, resulting in extension of the C. & E. I. railroad through the county and on to Thebes, and the, at first somewhat tentative, investment of capital looking to development of our mines.
The Marion Evening Post reported on February 28, 1895 that Emily A. Mitchell, mother of Mrs. Lilly (J. C.) Mitchell and Mr. A. F. White had died.
In 1900, Amzi and Nannie were living alone, he was 52, she was 41 and he was still working as a real estate salesman. In the same year, Amzi rode over to Carbondale from Marion to purchase a business block on the Marion square from Samuel W. Dunaway previously known as the Dunaway block. He paid $7,000 for the east half of the 800 block on the public square next to S. Market Street and proceeded to build a two story brick building on the corner of the square and S. Market which stood until the block was leveled in the 1990’s to make way for the Marion Civic Center. In later years, the building was known as the Dunston Building.
In October of 1900, Amzi sold 2,500 acres of land in Williamson County to the Illinois Steel Co. of Chicago who had been doing test borings for coal. The land was sold for $50 per acre to the company who planned on mining the coal for their own use. 800 of the acres were owned by Amzi and Judge O.A. Harker who had bought the land years ago at a nominal price. Carbondale Free Press
Amzi White died on June 12th 1909 at the age of 65.
The following year, in the 1910 census, 58 year old, widowed, Nannie White was living in her home which she owned free of mortgage at 104 S. Van Buren Street. A lodger named Mary Louise Haeberle, 5 years old, from Colorado was living with her.
Nannie died on August 31, 1915. After her death, the Civil War regimental flag of the Illinois 31st was found in her home, which had been presented to Amzi White after the death of his father. It was returned to Springfield, Illinois where it still resides. Both Nannie and Amzi were buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.
(Sources: Illinois Muster Rolls, U.S. Census Records, history of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Events in Egypt, Pioneer Folks and Places, Irwin’s History of Williamson County, Illinois, Historical Souvenir of Williamson County, Illinois, Ancestry.com, compiled by Colleen Norman)