Jacob M. White

JacobWhiteThe window at left was presented in memory of Jacob M. White (1812 – 1866), in all probability by his oldest son, Union cavalry officer William J. White (1840 – 1910) and his wife Kate E. Spencer (1855 – 1922), whom he married in 1875. Jacob’s wife Sarah R. Lambon (1815 – 1874), whom he married in 1837, died long before the windows were commissioned. Jacob is listed as a carpenter, age 38, in the 1850 U.S. Census for the Broadkill Hundred district, but he was much more than that.

Jacob M. White was a well-known shipbuilder in the heyday of that industry in Milton. We know of Jacob White’s shipbuilding activities in part because he is mentioned multiple times in Milton’s First Century 1807 – 1907, by Harold Hancock and Russell McCabe. The authors quote 19th and early 20th century sources listing him as one of the men active in this industry in the pre-Civil War era, along with many others. In 1834, when a record 9 vessels were built at the Milton shipyards, Jacob White was listed as the builder of the schooner Miers Burton.