Representative Bartow White

Bartow White (November 7, 1776, in Yorktown, Westchester County, New York – December 12, 1862, in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York) was an American physician and politician from New York. Born into a medical family at the close of the colonial era, he was the son of Dr. Ebenezer White (1746–1826) and Helena (Bartow) White. He grew up in Westchester County, where he attended the common schools and completed preparatory studies, receiving the basic classical and practical education typical of aspiring professionals in the early Republic.

White pursued medical training under the guidance of his father, continuing the family tradition in medicine. He further advanced his studies with Dr. Seaman in New York City, gaining exposure to more formal and urban medical practice at a time when the profession in the United States was beginning to organize along more standardized lines. In 1799 he commenced the practice of medicine in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, establishing himself as a community physician. On May 1804 he married Ann Schenck (1783–1861); together they had a large family of nine daughters and three sons, and Fishkill remained his home and professional base for the rest of his life.

Alongside his medical career, White became active in public affairs and aligned himself with the national political movements of his day. As a member of the Adams Party representing New York, associated with the supporters of President John Quincy Adams and often identified with the National Republican tendency of the era, he contributed to the legislative process during one term in office. He was elected to the Nineteenth United States Congress and served from March 4, 1825, to March 3, 1827. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history marked by debates over internal improvements, economic policy, and the evolving party system, and he participated in the democratic process by representing the interests of his New York constituents in the House of Representatives.

After the close of his congressional term, White resumed the full-time practice of medicine in Fishkill. He continued to be regarded as a respected physician in Dutchess County, maintaining a long professional career that spanned the early national and antebellum periods. His standing in public life, however, did not end with his congressional service. In 1840 he served as a presidential elector on the Whig ticket, casting his electoral vote for William Henry Harrison in the pivotal election that brought the Whig Party to national power. This role reflected his continued engagement with the evolving political realignments that followed the Adams era and his identification with the Whig program of economic development and constitutional reform.

White’s contributions to medicine were also formally recognized later in his life. In 1845 the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York conferred upon him an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), an acknowledgment of his long and reputable service in the profession at a time when honorary medical degrees were used to recognize established practitioners who had trained through apprenticeship rather than formal medical schools. This honor underscored his status as a leading local physician and his participation in the broader medical community of New York State.

In his later years, White suffered from epilepsy, a condition that afflicted him during the last fifteen years of his life. Despite this chronic illness, he remained a notable figure in Fishkill, remembered both for his decades of medical practice and for his earlier role in national politics. He died in Fishkill on December 12, 1862, at the age of eighty-six. Bartow White was buried in the Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery in Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York, where his grave marks the resting place of a physician-legislator whose life bridged the Revolutionary generation and the Civil War era.