Frederick Henry White, the Second Cossitt Family Archivist
If Pearl Steele Cossitt is the
Cossitt Family’s
First Archivist then his nephew, Frederick
Henry White, would have to be considered the second. Frederick is a
Cossitt descendant through both his father, George Cossitt White,
and his mother, Sarah Maria Cossitt, (first cousins) and was the
great great
grandson of Rene Cossitt and Ruth Porter through Rene Cossitt, Jr.
and Phoebe Hillyar.
Frederick was born in Rome, New York on June 16, 1850 where his father George was involved in business with his brother. On January 1st, 1857 George became a member of the firm of Atkins, Steele and Company of Milwaukee and moved his family to that city. George’s wife, Sarah Maria Cossitt, was the sister of Rev. Pearl Steele Cossitt. As it happens, she was also the 4th cousin of Charles Steele of Atkins, Steele and Co. It is unknown if Sarah and Pearl knew of their relationship as both their mother and Charles Steele were from Hartford, CT.
Frederick grew up in Milwaukee and made his living in real
estate, eventually gaining prominence as an evaluator of real estate
values. His obituary states that he was the author of several books on
real estate.
Frederick married Frances Ludington (1856-1922), daughter
of Harrison Ludington, 13th Governor of Wisconsin. A picture of
Frederick as a young man is shown below. In the years 1896-1899, when
Frederick was 46 to 49 and still living in Milwaukee, he applied his
interest in photography by making many 4x5 and 5x7 glass photographic
images, mostly of his family including his mother and first cousins
Frances and Mary (May) Cossitt, daughters of the very same Pearl Steele
Cossitt. These pictures may be seen at:
http://whites1896-1899.blogspot.com/
He retired from business in 1909 and moved his family to Pasadena,
California to live. Frederick traveled often to Europe and once around
the globe. He worked on the 1925 genealogy for eight years (1917-1925)
and died in Pasadena in January of 1927, only 13 months after this
edition was published.
Being doubly descendant from Rene and Ruth Cossitt, as well as the
nephew of Pearl, it seems inevitable that Frederick would carry on the
work started by Pearl. In preparing the 1925 edition of
Cossitt Family: A Genealogical
History of Rene Cossitt, a Frenchman Who Settled in Granby, Conn., 1717,
and of his descendants to 1879 By Pearl Steele Cossitt, A.M. 1879 and
continued to 1925 by Frederick Henry White and Frederick Briggs Stebbins
Frederick first prepared an interim volume with the same title but with
the addition of Continued
to 1921 by Frederick Henry White and Leander Peyton Cossitt.
This unpublished volume consists of the 1879 edition rebound with many
new pages inserted, all extensively covered with handwritten notes and
many tissue pages containing typed revisions pasted in. The title page
of this work is shown below. Additionally there are thousands of
handwritten comments correcting and extending the information in the
1879 edition (samples also shown below). This version was never
published. Rather, in 1925 the published version appeared, this time
with the original title as above but this time with the addition of
Continued to 1925 by Frederick
Henry White and Frederick Briggs Stebbins.
The contributions of Leander Peyton Cossitt were acknowledged in
the Preface to this 1925 published edition. The 1925 edition extended
the six generations and 452 numbered individuals in the 1879 edition to
eight generations and 2019 numbered family members. The inside cover
page of the “first copy” of this edition is shown below. While this
writer, the great grandson of Frederick, doubts that he planned another
edition, it is noteworthy that Frederick’s copy of the 1925 edition also
contains numerous notations, primarily describing marriages and children
of people listed in his work. He clearly never lost his interest in the
Cossitt family.
In short, Frederick Henry White led an active life as a husband and
father of five, success in business, family archivist, world traveler
and armature photographer.
Special thanks go to
Cousin Stuart White DDS, PhD for writing this story and furnishing all of the
pictures.
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