Edward Douglass White

Edward Douglass White (March 3, 1795 – April 18, 1847) was tenth Governor of Louisiana and a member of the United States House of Representatives. He served five non-consecutive terms in Congress, as an adherent of Henry Clay of Kentucky and the Whig Party. Biography White was born in Maury County, Tennessee, the illegitimate son of James White. (Although his parents apparently never married, his father acknowledged him, and the circumstances of his birth did not impede his education or future success.) James White was a delegate to the Continental Congress. While a young boy, Edward moved with his father to Louisiana. In 1815, White graduated from the former University of Nashville, afterward beginning a law practice in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, the seat of Ascension Parish, south of Baton Rouge. Ten years later, he was appointed by Governor Henry S. Johnson, also of Donaldsonville, as an Associate Judge of the New Orleans Municipal Court in 1825. In 1834, he married Catherine Sidney Lee Ringgold, daughter of Tench Ringgold, long the U.S. Marshal in the District of Columbia. Their children included Edward Douglass White Jr.