Return to Payette County IDGenWeb Home
One of the foremost business men of New Plymouth, Idaho, is Roy S. White, who conducts the only exclusive hardware establishment of the town. He is a young man of splendid business training, alert, resourceful and of the progressive order, and his store reflects his spirit, for it is one that in its equipment and appointments would be a credit to the largest city of the state.
A son of Robert N. White, he was born in Lyons, Wayne county, New York, May 27, 1883, but in 1887 the family removed to Nebraska, where Roy S. grew to manhood. Educated first in the public schools of Lincoln, Nebraska, he later became a student at Sheldon University, Chicago, Illinois, from which institution he was graduated as a Bachelor of Science in 1909. Following that he completed a business course, and with this broad and thorough preparation for business activity he began his independent career. In the meantime, however, he had been earning his own way and had been securing the means for his education, being thus in every sense a self-made man. He started out as a wage earner at $3 per week and up to the time he located at New Plymouth, Idaho, had had more than a decade of practical business experience. For seven years he had identified with the Lincoln Sash and Door Manufacturing Company, of Lincoln, Nebraska, subsequently serving one year for the National Lumber and Box Company, of Hoquiam, Washington, in charge of their sash and door department. Returning to Lincoln, Nebraska, he was department manager of the Appel Mercantile Company, wholesale milliners of that city, but after three years he resigned that position to become a stockholder and a director in the Plymouth Hardware and Lumber Company, of New Plymouth, Idaho. In June, 1911, Mr. White purchased the entire stock and the good will of the hardware branch of this business and has since been engaged in its management, the establishment being know as that of the White Hardware Company. It is the only concern of its kind in New Plymouth and carried a complete line of goods in all of its departments, while its fixtures in the way of cases and other such appointments are strictly modern and make of it an establishment that would be a credit to the largest cities of the West. His progressive ideas are money makers, for his annual business is now approximately $20,000 and has shown a steady increase from the date of his purchase.
Robert N. White, the father of Roy S., and now a retired resident of Lincoln, Nebraska, is a native of New York and for many years followed the profession of mechanical engineer. He was married December 15, 1876, at Fairville, New York, to Elizabeth Whitbeck, a native of New York and yet living. Elias N. White, the grandfather of our subject, was born in New York in 1826 and is yet living, being now a resident of Burlington, Racine county, Wisconsin. He has been a citizen of Wisconsin many years and is one of its prominent and highly esteemed men, having served three terms as a representative in the Wisconsin legislature and having served eighteen years as mayor of Burlington.
At Lincoln, Nebraska, on February 15, 1911, Mr. White was happily joined in marriage to Miss Lillian Van Sickle, a native of Nebraska and a daughter of G. A. Van Sickle. Mr. and Mrs. White have one son, Harold Edgar, born January 1, 1912, at New Plymouth, Idaho. In political faith Mr. White is a Democrat but does not actively participate in political affairs. He is a member of the lumber order of Hoo Hoos and is a member of the New Plymouth Commercial Club. He and his wife are communicants of the Congregational church. Through he has been a resident of this state a very short period he is already one of its staunchest admirers and most loyal citizens, eager to aid in its forwarding.