HOWARD P. WHITE, of Doylestown, coroner of Bucks county, was born in Warrington township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 2, 1859, and is a son of the late Jonathan and Mary Anna (BRUNNER) WHITE. The paternal ancestors of Mr. WHITE were residents of Solebury, Bucks county, for several generations. William WHITE having purchased a farm of 125 acres on the Carversville road below Peters Corner in 1729.

William WHITE, the grandfather of Howard P. WHITE, was a lifelong resident of Solebury, residing near Carversville, and a shoemaker by trade. He married Mary DELANEY, and they were the parents of several children, among whom was Jonathan WHITE, the father of the subject of this sketch.

Jonathan WHITE was born in Solebury, September 2, 1825, and was reared in that township. He learned the shoemaker’s trade with his father, and followed that vocation for a few years. In 1857 he was appointed deputy sheriff by Albert PHILLIPS, the sheriff of Bucks county, and served during the three years term of Sheriff PHILLIPS, closing with the year 1853. In the fall of that year he was elected to the office of clerk of Orphans’ court, and served in that office for three years. On his retirement from office he became proprietor of the Frog Hollow Hotel in Warrington township, Bucks county, which he conducted until the breaking out of the war, in 1861, when he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and fourth Pennsylvania Volumteers, Colonel W. W. H. DAVIS, Captain Jacob SWARTZLANDER, and was commissioned sergeant of his company. He served during three years of arduous service, participating in many hard fought battles, the record of the gallant One Hundred and Fourth being too families to the people of Bucks county to be recounted here and was mustered out September 25, 1864. He returned home badly broken in health, and never fully recovered from the effects of the hardships endured in the service of his country. After a few months rest he became the proprietor of a hotel at No. 1220 Market street which he conducted for three years: he then returned to Bucks county and kept a restaurant at Buckingham at the present location of the "Ottaway House," where he died in 1868. He married Mary Anna BRUNNER, daughter of Thomas and Theresa (FREDERICKS) BRUNNER, the latter a native of Germany, and the former of German descent, his ancestors having emigrated from Germany and settled in New Britain several generations back. Thomas BRUNNER was proprietor of the Willow Grove Hotel for two years, and then purchased the mills at Bridge Point, now Edison, Bucks county, of which he was the proprietor for many years, residing in Edison in all over fifty years. Mary Anna (BRUNNER) WHITE resides with her son in Doylestown. Jonathan and Mary Anna (BRUNNER) WHITE were the parents of two children: Howard Phillips and Arthur Cernea WHITE, the latter of whom died in 1896.

Howard P. WHITE resided with his parents to the age of seventeen years, and then became a clerk in the store of E. H. Worthington, at Edison, and filled that position for four years. In 1881 he went to Philadelphia and filled various positions there for two years. In 1883-4 he was employed at Cresson Springs, Pennsylvania. He then accepted a position as steward on Jay GOULD’s yacht and later was bookkeeper of the Philadelphia Art Club of Philadelphia for several years, resigning in 1897, since which time he has been engaged in the mercantile business at Doylestown. In the fall of 1904 he was elected to the office of coroner of Bucks county, and is now filling that position. In politics he is a republican, and is one of the well known men of the county seat. He is a member of Aquetong Lodge No. 193, I. O. O. F., St. Tammany Castle, K. G. E.; and the Doylestown Mannaerchor Society.

He married, May 12, 1889, May Emma ROBERTS, born May 12, 1861, daughter of John and Susanna (KRATZ) ROBERTS, of Doylestown. On the maternal side she is descended from John Valentine KRATZ, who was born in the Palatinate in 1707, and came to Pennsylvania at the age of twenty years in the ship "Friendship<" arriving at Philadelphia, October 15, 1727, and settled in Upper Salford, now Montgomery county. The grandparents of Mrs. WHITE are Isaac H. and Sybilla (DUKE) KRATZ; her great-grandparents Abraham and Elizabeth (FRETZ) KRATZ; and her great-great-grandparents Isaac and Mary (YELLIS) KRATZ, Isaac being a son of John Valentine, the emigrant. The only child of Howard P. and Mary Emma (ROBERTS) WHITE is Edward Earle, born February 18, 1890. The family are members of the Presbyterian church.

Text taken from page 244-245 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed August 2001 by Joan Lollis of IN. as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published August 2001 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/