“I'd Like To Ask Sister White ...”

Chapter 5—Tell Me About Your Boys

How Many Children Did You Have?

At Gorham, Maine, August 26, 1847, our eldest son, Henry Nichols White, was born. ¹ July 28, 1849, my second child, James Edson White, was born [at Rocky Hill, Connecticut]. When he was six weeks old we went to Maine. ² In the spring of 1850 we decided to visit Vermont and Maine. I left my little Edson, then nine months old, in the care of Sister [Clarissa] Bonfoey, while we went on our way to do the will of God. We had left one in the State of Maine two years and eight months old [in the Howland family]. ³ LASW 54.1

August 29, 1854, another responsibility was added to our family in the birth of Willie. He took my mind somewhat from the troubles around me. ⁴ LASW 54.2

Little Herbert, born September 20, 1860, died December 14 of the same year. When that tender branch was broken, how our hearts did bleed none may know but those who have followed their little ones to the grave. LASW 54.3

But oh, when our noble Henry died, at the age of sixteen^*—when our sweet singer was borne to the grave, and we no more heard his early song—ours was a lonely home. But God comforted us, and we pressed forward in the work He had given us, in bright hope of meeting our children in that world where sickness and death will never come. ⁵ LASW 54.4