Frank
'Burton' White
(1881-1941)
Frank 'Burton' White was born on Dec. 14, 1881 near Haseville, Linn County, MO, the son of Lester and Susan (McCarty) White.
At the age of 3,
Frank moved
with his parents and grandparents to Isabel, Barber County, KS. Said an Isabel
newspaper, he "endured the hardships of pioneer life and helped to build
the prairie into a prosperous community of which he was very fond."
On Jan. 19, 1905, at Sawyer, KS, Frank married Maude Lucinda Peterie (1885-1971). She was born on April 25, 1885 at Laredo, MO, the daughter of William G. and Mary Elizabeth (Davis) Peterie.
They had 2 children -- Cecil Claude White and Marjorie Aline LeDou. Cecil is said to have been "the first of 3 great grandsons of Luther White to be born on the Layton White farm at the east edge of Isabel."
An Isabel newspaper once said that "He was known and liked by everyone and had the true pioneer spirit of pride in his home community that he had helped build."
The Whites lived in Isabel, where 'Bert' often bartered his
farming services, "as was the custom," including harvesting,
threshing, butchering or moving. He
suffered from a heart condition but
farmed until about 1935, "when ill health compelled him to retire. He died at the age of 60, on June 28, 1941 at Isabel.
The main street of Isabel is seen here in a rare old postcard photograph.
Wife Maude has been called "a courageous woman!" She owned a restaurant in Isabel for several years before his death. Later, she moved to Wichita with her children, and was a landlord, renting apartments in her house. In July 1970, she broke her arm, and a year later, on May 10, 1971, she died in Wichita, "the last of that generation of the White family in Kansas." She was buried at Isabel.
Copyright © 2000, 2002 Mark A. Miner