E. A. White, Pioneer Fruit Broker, Succumbs At 89

E. A. White, a Lewiston pioneer who established a fruit business which at one time was the nation's largest, died at 7:45 last night at Tri-State Hospital of a heart attack. He was 89.

He was at work at the Producers Ass'n warehouse, which he managed, when he suffered the attack about 10 a.m. and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Few men if any had more to do with Lewiston's history since the turn of the century than White. His name had become a part of the history of the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley.

He had a brilliant mind which led him to many interest outside the fruit business and which remained active until his death. He was a humanitarian whose assets went into the building of Lewiston and over the years provided a helping hand for numerous friends and business associates. He had a mind which led to 16 patented inventions and sparkled with wit. And he was a poet and historian who recorded for posterity much about the area which otherwise would have been lost.

Born in Wyoming

Edward Arthur White was born June 21, 1873, at Evanston, Wyo., son of Mortimer and Evelyn Cobb White. He was graduated from high school there at age 15 and attended Collegiate Institute at Salt Lake City. He worked for his father, a judge, on a Wyoming ranch and labored in the mines of that state. The family later moved to Pocatello and E. A. White became a railroad worker.

He was an express messenger and baggageman (sic) on the Pacific Express Co. on the Spokane-Portland run when he accepted the suggestion of his brother, W. A. (Will) White, that he go into business at Lewiston. Will White was chief clerk at the U. S. Land office here. That was in 1899. E. A. white bought a cigar store in the old Weisgerber Bldg., 5th and Main Sts., then a frame structure.

But before the year was out he had started selling fruit at the store and was shipping it out to dealers in other states. In the meantime he had become an express agent for the Northern Pacific Railway Co. By 1901, running the store "took up so much time from fruit shipping," he explained later, that he sold the store, resigned his job and devoted all his time to the wholesale fruit business.

Was Major Product

Fruit was a major product in the area in that era. "At that time," he recalled later, "the main apple district of the whole Northwest was in the Palouse country and nearly every farmer had apple trees. The orchards were bigger then, ranging from 30 to 1,000 acres." Mr. White expanded his business until it became the largest of its kind in the United States. He had numerous fruit warehouses in this area and several in other portions of Washington and in California.

Then irrigated orchards in the Yakima and Wenatchee valleys were developed and "the orchards around here gradually gave way" he related. His first full-time fruit venture was the E. A. White Co. Later his brother, Will, and George E. Crum, who had been a fellow steamboat passenger when the railroad man came here to live in 1899, entered the business with him. The firm became successively White Bros. and White Bros. & Crum and finally E. A. White Fruit Co.

In the busy season the firm shipped seven carloads a day from its Clarkston warehouse, 400 to 500 during the season. In the beginning apples were shipped by steamboat, but rail transportation took over later. It was in 1903 that White Bros. & Crum built the packing house at 5th and Sycamore Sts., Clarkston. At one time more than 100 carloads of cherries a year were shipped from there.

[Much more information in article regarding his business and other ventures. Family information follows...]

He was married to Naomi Geneva MacKenzie here in April of 1902. She died in January of 1933 and he married Jessie Fraser of Creston, Wash., June 1, 1936, at Spokane.

Surviving besides his wife are a son, E. A. White Jr. of Santa Ana, Calif.; four daughters, Mrs. Barney (Helen) Reilly of Phoenix, Mrs. Melvin (Ruth) White of Lewiston, Mrs. Gordon (Naomi) Lane of San Rafael, Calif., and Mrs. Ross (Barbara) Benson of Tustin, Calif.; 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The son and daughters are en route here.