White was the son of the farmer Robert A. White and Hannah E. Newbrough . At the age of 19 , he left home for Hamilton County , Nebraska , where he taught school and bought 240 acres of farmland . Between 1883 and 1886 he was manager of a nursery company at York , Nebraska . On December 31 , 1885 , White married Anna E. Morrow , born in 1864 in Ohio , but living in Harvard , Nebraska . The marriage seems to have remained childless . In 1887 , they moved to Seattle , where he founded the Harry White & Co. real estate and brokerage firm , in which his younger brothers Will R. and George H. White joined him . His company invested heavily in Seattle , buying large swats of land and spending more on advertising than any other organization in Seattle . In July 1889 , a month after the Great Seattle Fire that destroyed the entire central business district , he was elected a member of the city council from the First ward . He took great effort in the rebuilding of downtown , for which he was awarded a nomination and election as mayor in July 1890 . When Washington became a state on November 11 , 1889 , Seattle adopted a new charter , and new elections were already held again on October 1 , 1890 . White was reelected for two years . However , under criticism for his management of public affairs , he resigned on November 30 , 1891 . The remaining months of his term were completed by fellow progressive Republican George Hall . Clarence B. Bagley wrote about him in his 1916 3-volume history of Seattle that , while in the year after his election " Gambling of every known variety flourished openly , as did harlotry and drunkenness , under the fostering eyes of the police " , White had rebuilt Seattle " along modern , progressive lines " and that the " story of Seattle ’s advancement since 1889 without mention of Mr. White would be like the play of Hamlet without the appearance of the Danish prince "
Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
Harry White (Washington politician)