 Following a prolonged illness, White died in Wheeling in 1915.Robert White was born on February 7, 1833, in Romney, Virginia, part of present-day West Virginia.White was the eldest son and child of Hampshire County court clerk John Baker White (1794–1862) and his second wife Frances Ann Streit White (c. 1809–1879) and a grandson of prominent Virginia judge Robert White (1759–1831).