"The wealth he possessed, and which he distributed with such a generous hand, came from no ancestral estates. He made his wealth, and he made himself, and he was emphatically 'the architect of his own fortune.' He honored his father and his mother, and his days were lengthened in the land; and if he had lived till the 17th day of February, 1881, he would have filled up the number of days which the Psalmist has assigned to manly life. His example in youth, in manhood, and in mature age is a valuable legacy to the young man who shall try to imitate it.
"To his wife and children he has left a memory as fragrant as devotion, tenderness, and love could make; and in the hearts of his other kindred he has planted a grateful remembrance, which will find a habitation there as long as their lives shall last. The beauty, gentleness and sweetness of his domestic life were only appreciated by those who saw him at home, in the bosom of his family, and partook of his genial hospitality.
'Wife, children, and neighbor may mourn at his knell;
He was lover and friend of his country as well.'
"It will not be out of place to insert here the language of a learned and gifted gentleman who knew Mr. White, having formed an acquaintance with him before the days of railroads, while he was driving on his route between Concord and Hanover. I refer to Prof. Edwin D. Sanborn, of Dartmouth College, who used frequently to ride on the outside of the coach with Mr. White. The following sketch was published in the Lebanon Free Press in 1859, and was part of an article entitled, 'Good Habits the Best Capital of the Young':—
'I know a gentleman, now residing at the capital of New Hampshire, who, at the early age of fourteen, left the paternal roof to become a clerk in a store. Thirty years ago every store was a grog-shop. From that business he entered a hotel in a large town, where liquor was also sold. The inference would be, with most persons, that such positions were very unfavorable to temperate habits. Ruin is almost inevitable to a young man thus exposed and tempted. In the case alluded to, the lad served his apprenticeship, and saved both his money and character. He never, in a single instance, tasted liquor, or used tobacco, or handled cards or dice. He passed from the hotel to the stageman's box. He drove a coach from Concord to Hanover ten years, I think. Before the building of railroads this was one of the most exposed routes in the state. The day's journey was long, the roads were bad, and the cold was often intense. It was the common practice of stagemen to fortify themselves against the cold by large and frequent potations. They soon lost health and character. They were a short-lived race because of their intemperance. But the subject of my story was true to his principles. In cold and heat he abstained. He resisted all solicitations, and offended nobody. He was trusted by all, suspected by none. He was universally popular, always intelligent. He was both a good companion and an honest agent. He never forgot a commission, never violated a trust. He saved his wages, and supported his parents, who needed his aid. Multitudes who had occasion to travel that weary road, still remember with gratitude the pleasant speech, agreeable deportment, and excellent habits of this accomplished stageman. When the railroad took the place of the old mail-coaches, the trusted and confidential agent and owner of "the old line" was employed upon the new mode of locomotion. He soon entered into the express business, which has been constantly increasing in extent of space and in quantity of packages from the first journey of the iron horse till this hour. The honest stageman became the confidential agent of thousands who had messages or property to be conveyed over the road. With the increase of business came increase of wealth. He was no lover of lucre. Though born in humble circumstances, and trained to habits of rigid economy, he had an eye for improvements, and a heart for practical beneficence. He acquired property easily, and he gave liberally. Aged parents and needy relatives shared his liberality. He cared for the friends who were bound to him by the ties of blood first, and then for such acquaintances as needed his ready aid. From the penniless boy, without education, he has become a thrifty man of business, bestowing thousands of his hard-earned treasures upon objects of charity of his own choice. How valuable is a character thus formed and matured! Through all his varied life he has never tasted ardent spirits, or used tobacco in any form. He ascribes all his success in life to his early determination to be both temperate and honest. Such an example deserves commendation and imitation.'
"These lines were written in 1859; and more than a score of years of usefulness, of duties, of benevolence, of affection, and of honor have since filled up and rounded off a life into the completeness of manhood. When he was removed from earth, death claimed a dutiful son, a tender and loving husband, an affectionate father, a devoted brother, and a constant friend.
"Since I came to this city, death has been constantly busy in our midst. None of us who have lived here these thirty years but have witnessed its ravages, snatching from many of us our dearest treasures. He has gathered to himself many of the gifted and the good, whose memories are still fragrant; but the sincere tributes to the memory of Nathaniel White have never been equaled, I fear never will be. No person in New Hampshire has ever had the happy combination of means and disposition to bestow such noble charities as he. I feel myself privileged, after forty years of constant friendship, to unite my tears of sorrow and sympathy with those of his bereaved family and afflicted friends, and to lay a laurel upon the freshly made grave which covers one of earth's true noblemen.
"How well he filled up all the days of his years with love for and duty to his family, his kindred, and his friends; to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the slave, and to all the unfortunate of earth! He claimed no right or privilege for himself, in the wide domain of nature, that he did not want others to enjoy. Hence he insisted always that the nation should immediately strike the shackles from the slave, and let the oppressed go free. Never himself under the thraldom of rum and tobacco, he wished everybody else to be free from it. He exercised the largest liberty himself, and enjoyed perfect freedom of thought and action in religious, political, and other matters; and he desired every man and woman to do the same. Hence, when he arranged his worldly matters, he gave the ownership and sole control of his business affairs into the hands of his wife, with whom he had walked life's journey, thereby giving signal proof of his sincerity that the wife is the equal of the husband in the sight of God, and should be in the love, esteem, and regard of man. He often said that the wife, in the event of the husband's death, should maintain the same rights and the same relation to the family that the husband would if the wife were taken away. In his will he made her responsible to no court or other tribunal. She was only required to make proof of his will, in order that the ownership of all his property should vest in her. In all this he recognized the rights of womanhood as well as the rights of manhood. In this way he gave proof of his belief that the twain, man and wife, are one flesh.
"The Centennial Home for the Aged was the apple of his eye; and yet he made no large bequests to it himself, having perfect assurance that the wife, who had borne life's burdens with him, and shared his devotion to this noble benevolence, would be equally the author of her own charities and the almoner of his. As a business man and a citizen, his reputation ripened by integrity. It was beautified by sincere sympathy for the poor and the downtrodden; it was embellished by his generous charities; and it was endeared by his gentle and winning manners. When his final summons came, he had filled out a life of rare usefulness and of singular success.
"Mr. White was fifty-four years a resident of Concord. In every thing that made for her welfare he was always the foremost citizen. Many others did nobly, but he exceeded them all. In a single matter that vitally affected the city of Concord,[6] in which the writer was engaged, and in which liberal expenditures were needed, he contributed more than all the others combined; and I make mention of this because the people of Concord should know of his liberality, about which he rarely ever spoke and never boasted.