White Family
Papers, 1794-1941; bulk 1830-1900

SC11306

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Biographical Note:

These papers document the inter-related property and business interests of several prominent upstate New York families throughout the nineteenth century. The Pierrepont, Mansfield, and White families had a complicated web of business, land, political and marriage connections during that time. A brief sketch of each family is presented here.

Pierrepont Family

Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont (1768-1838), merchant, farmer, landowner and land developer in Brooklyn and New York State, was the grandson of James Pierpont, one of the founders of Yale University and an ancestor of financier J.P. Morgan. He changed the spelling of the family surname from "Pierpont" to "Pierrepont," its original French spelling. Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Hezekiah settled in Brooklyn in 1802 after a short career as a merchant adventurer and married Anna Maria Constable (1783-1859), the daughter of William Constable, another prominent New York merchant and landowner who had been a partner in the 1791 Macomb's Purchase. As a wedding present William Constable gave the couple half a million acres of land in northern New York. The town of Pierrepont, New York, is named after Hezekiah.

The couple's eldest son, William Constable Pierrepont (1803-1885), was born in New York City. Learning the land business from his father as he grew up, he moved to Jefferson County around 1820 to open a land office there to manage the family properties. In 1830, he married Cornelia Ann Butler and settled at Pierrepont Manor. There, after his father's death in 1838, he continued to manage the Constable and Pierrepont lands in Jefferson and Oswego counties until his own death. He was also involved with early railroad businesses, chiefly the Watertown & Rome Railroad. William and Anna had seven children, one of whom, Anna Maria Pierrepont (1841-1884), married William Mansfield White in 1863. William C. Pierrepont is buried, along with many family members, in Pierrepont Manor Cemetery.

William Constable Pierrepont's younger brother, Henry Evelyn Pierrepont (1808-1888), remained in Brooklyn, New York, handling the family businesses and lands there.

Mansfield Family

Also originating in Connecticut, the Mansfields were descended from Richard Mansfield, who came from England and settled in New Haven, Connecticut, about 1639.  Five generations later, William Punderson Mansfield (1774-1855) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut. He became a merchant and set up in business as Mills & Mansfield with his father-in-law, Bradley Mills, in Kent, Connecticut. In 1828, William's daughter, Maria Mills Mansfield (1808-1888), married Hugh White (1790-1870).  Shortly after, the family moved to Waterford, New York, where William joined his son-in-law in building a flouring mill. William was something of a poet, a trait which he seems to have passed on to his son, Lewis. William P. Mansfield died in 1855 and was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York, in a Plat purchased by his son-in-law, Hugh White.

William P. Mansfield's youngest child, and brother to Maria, Lewis William Mansfield (1816-1898), attended Union College (1833-1835). He too went into business with Hugh White, his brother-in-law, manufacturing hydraulic cement, which had been patented by Hugh's brother Canvass White, a prominent engineer on several canals. He also became a published author, owned a knitting mill, established prayer meetings during the Civil War and was confined for some time in an asylum in Utica, New York. Lewis W. Mansfield married three times, leaving one surviving son by his second wife. He died in Troy, New York, in 1898.

William K. Mansfield (1856-1944), born in Waterford, New York, was the only surviving child of Lewis W. Mansfield. He joined his father in the mill business, afterward going into journalism and purchasing the Cohoes Daily News in 1884, serving as publisher and editor. Fourteen years later he went into brick manufacturing at Crescent, Saratoga County, New York. He became involved in politics and, for many years, was an active Republican in Saratoga County. He married Ella C. Clute of Crescent in 1882. William K. Mansfield served as administrator for his father during Lewis's incapacitated years. William died in 1944, his wife having pre-deceased him by ten years.

White Family

Hugh White (1798-1870) was descended from John White, who arrived in Boston with his wife and family in 1632. His son, Nathaniel, settled his family in the Middletown, Connecticut, area where the family resided for several generations. Hugh White's grandfather, Capt. Hugh White (1733-1812), served in the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Following the Revolutionary War, he resettled his family in central New York where he had purchased land in Oneida County, creating the town of Whitestown.

Hugh White's older brother, Canvass White (1790-1834), achieved considerable standing as an engineer and inventor of waterproof cement. He was first employed on the Erie Canal, then the Union Canal (Pennsylvania), Delaware and Raritan Canal (New Jersey), and Lehigh Canal (Pennsylvania). He became president of the Cohoes Company in 1826 but died at the age of 44 and is buried in Princeton Cemetery, Princeton, New Jersey.

Hugh White, born in Whitestown, studied law and graduated from Hamilton College in 1823. He entered business in Chittenango in 1825, manufacturing his brother's waterproof cement. He moved to Cohoes, New York, in 1830, where he became involved in the development of water power from the Mohawk River, and later building up the Rosendale cement works. In 1844, he was elected as a Whig to the United States Congress, holding office from March 4, 1845, to March 3, 1851. Hugh married Maria Mills Mansfield in 1828. The couple had one son, William Mansfield White, and at least six daughters. Hugh, along with his wife and son, was active in land sales and leases in Albany, Cohoes, Watervliet and Waterford throughout the mid-1800s. Hugh White died in Waterford in 1870 and was buried in Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, New York. His wife, Maria White, lived another eighteen years and is buried with her husband.

William Mansfield White (1833-1896), was born in Waterford, New York, and like his father, attended Hamilton College, graduating in 1854. William seems to have been active with his father in various land transactions. In 1863, William married Anna Maria Pierrepont (1841-1884), of Pierrepont Manor. (See above.) The couple had eleven children. William became one of the executors of the William Constable Pierrepont estate, with offices in Utica, New York.

William Mansfield White's sister, Isabel White (1837-1910), married William W. Niles in 1855. Of their seven children, two sons and three daughters survived into adulthood. The Niles family resided in the Bronx, New York, where William Niles was a lawyer. William Mansfield White and Isabel W. Niles became partners in a significant number of property transactions, particularly in Waterford, New York.

Two of William M. White's sons appear in this collection: 1) Hugh White (1865-1940) took over the management of the Pierrepont estate lands following in his father's footsteps; and 2) William Pierrepont White (1867-1938).

Associated Persons

Papers of several other significant persons appear in this collection, due to their business interactions with the above families.

• Benjamin Wright (1770-1842), engineer and surveyor, was employed to resurvey the nearly 500,000 acres granted to George Scriba in the Scriba Patent, and lay it out in survey towns. 
• Charles H. Cross (1807-1883), surveyor, became a land agent for the Pierrepont estate in 1850. He was aided and succeeded by his son Gilbert L. Cross (1850-1890).
• Gerrit H. Van Wagenen (1838-1893) married into the Pierrepont family and became a co-executor of the Pierrepont estate lands along with William M. White.
• Orsamus B. Matteson (1805-1889) was a successful lawyer and Republican Congressman from Utica, New York, serving from 1849 to 1851 and from 1853 to 1859.

Scope and Content Note:

These papers have been divided into four series. Series I consists of the personal, family and business papers of the White and Mansfield families and related individuals.  Series II contains mainly land papers that cover the northern New York lands of Macomb's Purchase, the Scriba Patent, Boylston Tract, the Pierrepont estate, and the Wright estate. Series III is unprocessed land documents and contracts, of the same era and locations. Series IV contains 82 bound volumes of legal books, plat books, letter copy books, account books, ledger books, etc. relating to the families of this collection.

Related Collections:

The Cornell University Library holds two complimentary collections: the White Family Papers (1831)and the Hugh White Papers (610), both of which feature similar materials and many of the same individuals.

The New York State Library holds both the Pierrepont Family Papers (SC13605) pertaining to the land holdings of Hezekiah B. Pierrepont in Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, and the George L.C. Scriba Papers (SC10521) covering his Oneida County land purchase. See also the Benjamin Wright Collection (SC21247) for additional materials related to his life and career.

There are additional Pierrepont Family Papers at the Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn, New York, which focuses on Hezekiah B. Pierrepont and his second son, Henry E. Pierrepont, and their interests, mainly in Brooklyn.

There is also a small amount of verse material from William P. Mansfield and his daughter, Florilla P. Mansfield, who died at the age of seventeen, contained in SC11835, the William Croswell Doane Family Papers (Box 14, Folder 23), held at the New York State Library.

Provenance Note:

This collection is a collation of papers acquired from different sources and originally accessioned separately. The original collection, of which little information is known, was accessioned in 1944 under the number SC11036 and the name Hugh White. About 1970, additional materials were purchased from John White (likely the son of the Hugh White born in 1865), and given the accession number SC15792. More materials were acquired from the dealer Frank F. Thomas around 1976 and accessioned as SC16563. About 1988 all three collections were combined into SC11036.

Series I: White and Mansfield Family and Business Papers
Dates: 1800-1941
Quantity: 2.5 cu. ft. (Boxes 1-7; Box 19, Folders 13-14)

This series contains personal, political, and business papers of Hugh White (1798-1870) and his son William M. White, including correspondence to Representative Hugh White while he was in Congress. Many of the papers document property transactions in conjunction with his wife, Maria, and his son in the towns of Cohoes, Waterford and Watervliet, New York. Following the death of Hugh White, these transactions continued in the name of William M. White and his sister, Isabel W. Niles.

One interesting item is a long letter addressed to Lewis W. Mansfield in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1840. It is half from Hugh White and half from his wife, sister of Lewis, and is written on stationery illustrated with drawings of two medals issued by Congress to William H. Harrison and Isaac Shelby in gratitude for their success in defeating the British and Indian forces in Canada in 1813 (Box 1, Folder 1).

The Mansfield family papers include correspondence, land papers, estate papers and wills, household receipts, bank checks and the political writings of William K. Mansfield. Particularly interesting is a letter from Lewis W. Mansfield to his sister, Maria M. Mansfield White (Mrs. Hugh White), while traveling by ship to Europe with his first wife, Carry Bayard Mansfield, in December 1847. He wrote a 26-page journal of the trip through the North Atlantic, from Newfoundland to Ireland to England; this may have been a honeymoon trip, from which the couple returned to New York in May 1848 (Box 5, Folder 3).

Also included are some papers of the Clute family, relations of Ella C. Clute, wife of William K. Mansfield; business and family papers of Isabel W. Niles; papers of Gerrit and Anna Van Wagenen, Charles H. Cross and other Cross family members; and papers relating to several other individuals whose relationship to the White and/or Mansfield families is unknown.

Finally, Box 19 contains some correspondence and loose papers of Orsamus B. Matteson, whose legal papers are found in the bound volumes of Series IV.

Series II: Land Papers of Scriba's Patent, Boylston Tract, Pierrepont Estate, and Benjamin Wright's Estate
Dates: 1794-1899
Quantity: 4.0 cu. ft. (Boxes 8-19)

This series contains a variety of land papers: surveys, field books, plat plans, deeds, mortgages, leases, articles of agreement, and tax assessment papers for towns in Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego and Oneida counties. Some of these lands were part of the original Macomb's Purchase of 1791, some part of Scriba's Patent, and some became part of the Pierrepont estate lands in the hands of Hezekiah and William C. Pierrepont or the Benjamin Wright estate. The names of many early settlers are contained in these land papers.

Also included here are bills, receipts and account statements for the management of these lands, and papers relating to some of the railroads and businesses that grew up in those areas.

Series III:  Unprocessed Land Documents
Dates: ca. 1840-ca. 1890
Quantity: 1.25 cu. ft. (Boxes 20-21)

Series IV:  Bound Volumes
Dates: 1808-1939
Quantity: 11.0 cu. ft. (Boxes 22-52)

This series contains 82 bound volumes: ledger books, day books, account books, legal registers, copy books and 36 plat books. The plat books are identified by town while the others are mostly arranged by the person, family or business to which they belonged.

Twenty-two volumes of this series (Volumes 12-33) represents the legal career and various law offices of Orsamus B. Matteson from 1833 to 1859. Matteson was the first city attorney of Utica, New York, and served as a state Supreme Court commissioner. He had a lucrative law practice in the city along with several different partners.

Nine of the volumes are the copy books of surveyor Charles H. Cross, dating from 1856 to 1889; the last one contains surveys by A.B. Clark.

Volume 5 is of particular interest in that it documents the day-by-day expenses of building and running a "flouring mill" in New York State in early 1830s, an enterprise of Hugh White and his father-in-law William P. Mansfield.