This is a transcription of the Armenia S. (Aldrich) White biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 9.
Armenia S. (Aldrich) White
FEW names are better known in connection with reform and philanthropic work than that of Armenia S. White, wife of the late Nathaniel White, of Concord. Born in Mendon, Mass., November 1, 1817, of Quaker parentage, her father, John Aldrich, being the fifth generation from Moses Aldrich, the English Quaker preacher, who settled in Rhode Island in the seventeenth century, while her maternal ancestry is traced directly to Edward Doten, a Pilgrim of the Mayflower, she removed with her parents to Boscawen, in 1830, and at the age of nineteen married Nathaniel White, a young stageman, who through industry, sobriety, and business sagacity, aided always by his chosen life-companion, won success and fortune, and made the same a blessing and a benediction to needy and oppressed humanity. Like her husband, she was an ardent friend of the anti-slavery cause, and their hospitable home welcomed the fugtive slave as freely as the most notable personage in the land. The temperance and woman suffrage causes she espoused with enthusiasm, and has ever labored zealously for their success. She has long been the friend and co-worker of such women as Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, and Frances E. Willard. The charitable and benevolent institutions of the state have ever been the objects of her fostering care. Mrs. White was the first president of the New Hampshire W. C. T. U., has been president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage association since its organization, and largely through her efforts was secured the legislation enabling New Hampshire women to vote and hold office in connection with school affairs. She is a member of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Centennial Home for the Aged, of the Orphans’ Home, Franklin, and the Mercy Home, Manchester, was active in the establishment, and has been a liberal supporter of each. The Universalist church in Concord and at large, and manifold charities, local and general, have ever commanded her earnest sympathy and generous aid.