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| The Unknown Albert U. White, Jr. |
These days New London, which lies about 45 miles SW of Cleveland and has a population of about 2,400 has an interesting history. In White's day the town was much smaller with a population closer to 1,500. From about 1900 to about 1948 New London was nicknamed Ferretville USA because it was the ferret-raising capital of the world. They shipped 30,000 to 40,000 of the critters a year. In those days ferrets were used to chase down rats on farms and there was also a sport called ferreting which was eventually outlawed in most states.
The article stated that in 1895, at the age of 16, he won the Ohio State Chess Championship, but that cannot be right because when White died in 1955 he was 85 years old. That would mean he was born in 1870, making him 25 in 1895. As far as I know there are no records of who was the Ohio champion in those years. In any case, White’s grandson was not a serious player and the article could have contained some errors.
The article also claimed that as a result of winning the Ohio Championship, White earned the right to compete in the National Chess Championship that same year where he finished as runner up.
The story goes that the final game was played between White and a man by the name of Ripley of Indianapolis. Both had easily won their previous matches and in the final it soon appeared White had an advantage. Ripley offered a draw, but White refused electing to continue play. White lost, for in his haste he made a careless move which cost him the game and the US title.
Of course this is not correct because in those days the US title was decided by match play and in 1895 the champion was Jackson W. Showalter. I was unable to determine if White actually did win the Ohio Championship in 1895 and if he did, what tournament he might have played in that year, but it certainly was not for the US Championship!
However, there was a player named Warwick H. Ripley, a prominent Indianapolis lawyer who was also a well known player and organizer of Indiana chess in the late 1800s, so it’s possible White played in a local tournament in Indiana that year.
What I was able to verify was that Albert U. White, Jr. did play in the Continental Correspondence Chess Tournament started by Walter Penn Shipley of Philadelphia in 1894.
This tournament introduced the concept of preliminary rounds prior to a final round. Prizes were:
First - $50 in cash or a gold medal and chess books of that value) as the winner preferred
Second - $35 or chess books totaling that value as the winner preferred.
Third - $25 or chess books totaling that value as the winner preferred.
Fourth - $18 or chess books totaling that value as the winner preferred.
Fifth - $14 or chess books totaling that value as the winner preferred.
Sixth - $10 - or chess books totaling that value as the winner preferred.
There were also Special Prizes:
1) Longest announced mate - $5 worth of chess books
2) Most elegant termination of a game. Book prize
3) Most brilliant game - $5 worth of chess books
4) Best Evans Gambit - $5 worth of chess books
5) Best score by a non-prize winner against a prize winner in the final round – chess book
6) In the preliminary Section III a book prize worth $5 was offered o the player making the 5th best score (out of 14 players).
The preliminary rounds consisted of five sections with 14 players. Albert U. White, Jr. played in Section I. The players were William J. Ferris, John S. Hale, W.H. Hicks, J.A. Kaiser, M. Lissner, G.A. L’hommede, B.H. Lutton, E.S. Maguire, Henry, H. Morrill, J. Whitall Nicholson, Henry Plenge, J.F. Prentice, Alfred Waterson and White. White’s home town at the start of the tournament was listed as Lodi, Ohio.
The final round had 19 players and was won by an ex-Canadian who had moved to Chicago named C.W. Phillips. It’s not known how White fared.
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| White's home in New London |
Albert U. White, 85, Retired Merchant At N. London, Dies
Son of Huron County Pioneers. Had Been Invalid Four Years. Was Chess Expert
NEW LONDON, Jan 22 – Alebrt U. White, 85, a life long resident of this community who retired in 1930 from operation of the A. White and Co., a dry goods and mercantile business which had been in business for 108 years died this morning in New London Hospital after a lengthy illness.
Mr. White, who had been an invalid for the past four years, was the great grandson of John and Fear Perry White, who came Huron County from New York state with their family of 10 children by bob sled in the winter of 1817. The family cleared and settled on land which is now a part of the Huron county Home farm, just south of Norwalk.
The store Mr. White operated was founded by his grandfather, Union White at Fitchville when that village was the most thriving community in Huron county being the main road to Milan which at that time was the most important grain port in the nation. Due to the shortage of hard money. Much of the trade of that day was conducted with furs and pearl ash, of which large deposits existed nearby.
Father Built Town Hall
Mr. White’s forebears came to this country about 1630 and settled in the Taunton area of Massachusetts. In 11 generations, the family resided in onl;y two communities in Massachusetts and Huron County. His father built the New London town hall.
In his earlier years Mr. White was one of the nation’s outstanding chess players.
The obituary adds that White’s wife, Bertha, had passed away two year’s earlier and he was survived by five sons, a daughter, a sister, 13 grandchildren asn 13 great-grandchildren. He was buried in the Grove Street Cemetery in New London, Ohio.
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| Grove Street Cemetary |
His grandson wrote that White suffered from dementia and hardening of the arteries, but a few weeks before his death, he requested his chess set and proceeded to badly defeat his grandson.
The article stated that the scoresheets to White’s games all disappeared. As a result, I could only locate three of his games. One game score as published was mangled to the point that it could not be deciphered...not an infrequent problem with the old descriptive notation! Another game was a miniature of little interest because his opponent fell into an opening trap.
The only other game I found was the following one played against W.C. Cochran from Cincinnati, Ohio. White’s home was listed as Nova, Ohio, not Lodi as when the tournament started. As the players were in different starting sections I assume this game was from the finals.
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