James Jones White
James Jones White was a Professor of Greek at Washington College, now Washington and Lee University, and carried the nickname "Old Zeus", so dubbed by his students. He was considered one of the "Big Four" professors at the University. White was a close personal friend and confidante of both General Robert E. Lee and his son Custis. After the war, Lee was appointed President of the University, and White assisted General Lee with his University duties and obligations on many occasions, filling in for him at many functions when Lee's health was poor. After the death of Lee, Old Zeus became the acting president, and again held that office several times during the tenure of George Washington Custis Lee.[1]
Education
Reverend White was educated in Presbyterian Theology at home by his father, and served as a Sunday School teacher, Deacon and Elder in the church, on his path to becoming a minister. As a youth he studied at the Augusta Male Academy, taught by Doctor John Hendren, also a judge of Augusta County. In 1846, he entered the Classical School at the University for a year, graduating with distinction. From 1847-1850, he taught at the Charlottesville Classical School. He re-entered the University in 1850, graduating with Honors in Greek and Latin. He then taught at a nearby private school, which also enabled him to study French and German. After teaching for a while at at the Davis Institute in Halifax County, Virginia, he was elected to the Chair of Greek at Washington College. He was well educated in Greek Language, History, Mythology, and Law, thus earning him the name "Old Zeus", and often called "Jove", both terms of love, honor, and respect. Many letters and articles show that he was held in the highest esteem by his classmates and professors, by his students and fellow faculty, and by the soldiers under his command.[1]
Family Life
Reverend White was born in Nottoway County, Virginia 7 November, 1828, the son of Reverend Doctor William Spotswood White and Jane Isabella Watt. In 1858, White married Miss Mary Louisa "Mary Lou" Reid, the daughter of Colonel Samuel McDowell Reid, of Rockbridge County, Virginia. The Whites had six children, Sarah Helen 'Sallie' White Bruce(1860-1955), Isabelle 'Belle' White Brown(1862-1950), McDowell Reid White(1863-1866), Agnes Reid White Goldsby(1864-1943), William Cabell White(1865-1908), James Reid White(1868-1931).[1][2] [3] Captain White was taken ill in April 1893, and died suddenly on 29 April 1893. He and his wife are buried in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10333987/james-jones-white
Military Service
At the start of the War Between The States, Reverend White, age 32, enlisted 2 June 1861 in the Confederate Army, along with many of his students, in the 4th Virginia Infantry, Company I, their company known as the Liberty Hall Volunteers, formed 8 June 1861. This unit was part of the Stonewall Brigade. He was appointed Captain of his unit, and by all accounts was held in as high esteem in military service as he was in his professional career and personal life. He resigned his military post 6 September 1861, due to illness and his feeling of no longer being physically able to lead his men. [4][5] He then returned to the University to continue his teaching career.
Many of his letters to his wife, family, and acquaintances have been preserved and are available to the public. [6][7] They detail the sentiment and news reports of the time period, as well as camp life, battles, and personal accounts of him and his men during the war.
Washington & Lee University Memorial Resolutions
His faculty memorial states that he was "endowed with a vigorous mind and a favorful(sic) moral nature; with fidelity to right and loyalty to duty; with generous habits and genial manners; with a life full of good deeds; and with a devotion to this university of these combined gifts, the faculty feels that his loss to this institution is irreparable. His chair may be filled, but his place can never be supplied".[8]
In memory of White, John L. Campbell, secretary of the Board of Trustees, wrote the resolution of that body:
"The Board of Trustees cherish in grateful remembrance the life and character of Professor James J. White and his great service to the University. For more that forty years he fill the Chair of Greek and Greek Lecturer with distinguished ability and fidelity. As a teacher he aroused the interest, enlisted the zeal, and won the confidence of his pupils. He did his work thoroughly, and he expected and usually secured thorough work from the students under his charge. As a result he turned out a large number of Greek scholars, among them men who have commanded a national reputation.
But his most valuable work as a professor was not so much in the intellectual training of his classes, valuable as that training was. It was the potential influence of good which he exercised over all the students of the University. The secret of this was his strong common sense, his deep religious nature profoundly impressed and animated by the pure spirit of Christianity, his innate gentleness and gentlemanliness(sic), and his deep sympathy with and his broad charity for young men. The students soon learned that in him they had a true friend. They honored and they loved him, and in him they placed their unfaltering trust. Since the days of Dr. Thomas Arnold there has probably been no man who has had a stronger hold or exerted a more beneficial influence upon the young men who were his pupils.
Loyalty was one of the salient traits of his character, and it was never more signally illustrated than in his devotion to this Institution. Under all circumstances and in all places he was always ready to give the University his untiring and enthusiastic support. His mind was active in devising ways in which his interest might be advanced, an he did with ability and zeal whatever his hand could find to do in her cause.
In all his life of usefulness and successful endeavor an earnest and unpretending religious faith was the central force and motive-power of his being, and shed a radiance over his works and character. Among the names of the great and good men who have added to the usefulness and the glory of this University his name lives and his memory will be enshrined among its(sic) most precious possessions.
The secretary will record this minute, and the Rector is requested to send a copy of it to the widow of Professor White, with assurances of the deep sympathy of the member of this Board for her and her children in their sore bereavement.
A copy from the records of the Board of Trustees: Jno. L. Campbell, Secretary Board of Trustees".[8][9]
The alumni at that time also agreed to provide $8,000 for a James White Memorial Fellowship.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Turner, Charles W. (1983). Old Zeus. Verona, Virginia: McClure Press. pp. Chapter 1. ISBN Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 83-50950 Check
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- ↑ "Ancestry.com". ancestry.com. 1860,1870, 1880 US Census Records. Check date values in:
|date=(help) - ↑ "Findagrave". findagrave.com.
- ↑ Turner, Charles W. (1983). Old Zeus. Verona, Virginia: McClure Press. pp. Pg 39. ISBN Library of Congress Catalog Card Number83-50950 Check
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- ↑ "Fold3 Military Records". Fold3.com.
- ↑ Turner, Charles W (1983). Old Zeus. Verona, Virginia: McClure Press. ISBN Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 83-50950 Check
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- ↑ "James J. White Letters, 1860-1861". UNC University Libraries.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Turner, Charles W. (1983). Old Zeus. McClure Press. pp. 108–110. Search this book on
- ↑ Southern Collegian 1893: 78–79. Missing or empty
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Reverend James Jones White, Captain, CSA
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