Background
George White was born in Charleston, S. C. , the son of poor but industrious parents.
George White was born in Charleston, S. C. , the son of poor but industrious parents.
His early education seems to have been acquired principally through his own efforts.
His parents were Methodists, and at the age of eighteen he was licensed to preach, soon becoming known as the "beardless preacher. " In 1823 he moved to Savannah, Ga. , where he continued to reside for the next quarter of a century. Here he opened an academy, and with the exception of 1826-27, when he was in charge of the publicly controlled Chatham Academy, he conducted his school, under different names, for some years. He was rigid in his discipline and held his scholars to high requirements; yet he won "the affection of his pupils and the permanent esteem of their parents and guardians". He long refused to teach girls, because such teaching would necessitate adopting a milder discipline. He established a night school, introduced various apparatus into the classroom, and was in general progressive in his ideas on education. Having come to dislike the Methodist form of government, he joined the Protestant Episcopal Church and in 1833 became a clergyman of that communion. He preached to seamen and during the last five years of his residence in Savannah he engaged in mission work on the islands along the Georgia coast. White's most valid claim to remembrance rests on his historical work. In 1839 he joined a group of citizens of Savannah in organizing the Georgia Historical Society. His interest led him through long and tedious investigations in Georgia and as far north as New York City, which resulted in the publication ten years later of his Statistics of the State of Georgia, a work of great merit. In 1852 he brought out An Accurate Account of the Yazoo Fraud Compiled from Official Documents, and two years thereafter, his Historical Collections of Georgia, a classic in Georgia bibliography. These last two works were published while White was in Marietta, Ga. , whither he had moved in 1849. He remained there until 1854, when he definitely gave up further historical work and entered fully into the service of the Church, first as a missionary to Lagrange and West Point, Ga. , and in 1856 as rector of Trinity Church, in Florence, Ala. In 1858 he went to Memphis, Tenn. , as assistant rector of Calvary Church, under Bishop James H. Otey, and the following year became rector, holding this position until two years before his death, when he retired as rector emeritus.
He married Elizabeth Millen of Savannah and to this union were born eight children, of whom one son and three daughters outlived their father.