Washington County
Ohio Genealogy Trails
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Maj. Haffield White
Maj. Haffield White was a native of Danvers, Mass.
At the commencement of the war, on the 19th of April, 1775, by the attack of the British troops on the militia, at Lexington, and the destruction of the stores at Concord, he was an officer in a company of minute men. The news of that attack was spread through the country with great rapidity; and men who in the morning were thirty miles from the scene of action, were on the ground before night, in time to harass the jaded and retreating Britons, from their first inroad into the possessions of the Massachusetts yeomanry. The result of that day taught them to be cautious in venturing far beyond the cover of the guns of their navy, into the land of these modern Spartans. The alarm reached Danvers in time for Lieut. White, with the company of minute men, to reach the flanks of the flying enemy, and, from behind the stone walls, throw several destructive fires into the ranks of the British. His own men suffered considerably; losing eight killed out of the company. Soon after this affair he was commissioned as a captain, and raised a company of men, which was among the most efficient and active in the service, especially at the crossing of the Delaware, and battle of Trenton, in December, 1701; many of them being sailors, and very useful in manning the boats to cross the army. He was with Gen. St. Clair in the retreat from Ticonderoga; and under Co!. Francis fought manfully at the battle of Hubbardstown; thereby checking the pursuit of the British troops, and enabling the Americans to reach Stillwater, and form the nucleus of that army which soon after conquered Burgoyne, and turned the tide of conquest against our foes. He was engaged in many of the battles that preceded this overthrow, and thus shared in the glories and triumphs of Saratoga, on the 13th of October, 1777. At the time of the retreat from Ticonderoga, he was paymaster of the regiment, and in that disastrous affair lost a large sum of money, which was not allowed by the United States. When Col. Pickering took charge of the commissary department of the army, being acquainted with the integrity and activity of Capt. White, living in the same town, he was selected for one of his assistants, and remained in that branch of the service until the close of the war, when he was made a major.
At the formation of the Ohio Company, he became one of the proprietors, and was appointed, by the directors, commissary and conductor of their first detachment of pioneers, which left Danvers in December, 1787. On their arrival at Marietta, he was continued as their steward for the first year; after which that office was no longer needed. His son Pelatiah was one of the forty-eight who landed from the May-flower at Marietta, on the 7th of April. In 1789 he engaged with Col. Oliver and Capt. Dodge, in erecting mills on Wolf creek. When the war with the Indians commenced, he left the mills, as they were much exposed to hostile attacks, and came to Marietta, where he remained until after the peace of 1795. He then resumed his possessions, a farm, near the mills, and lived with his son until his death.
In person Maj. White was below the medium size, but thickset and robust; very active, and brisk in his motions; prompt to execute any business on hand in the most expeditious manner; complexion florid, and sanguine temperament, lie was a brave soldier, and a very useful and industrious citizen.
Source: A History of Belpre, Washington County, Ohio, by C. E. Dickinson, 1920, Transcribed by C. Anthony
