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Joseph S. White

Death Takes Early Day Ft. Towson JP
The Hugo Daily News December 28, 1966 p. 1 – transcribed by Ron Henson

     Joseph S. White, colorful early day justice of the peace at Fort Towson, died Tuesday at the Hugo Golden Age Home. He was 94 and had lived at Fort Towson since 1906.
     Services will be Friday at 2 p.m. in the Church of Christ in Hugo with Bob Crass officiating. Burial will be in Mount Olivet cemetery.
     Coffey Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
     During his many terms as justice of the peace at Fort Towson, “Uncle Joe” dispensed justice in more than 1,400 cases and never once did his legal papers have to be returned by higher officials for correction.
     The veteran once readily admitted that the “subscription school” he attended as far as the fourth grade didn’t include any “law subjects” in its curriculum.
     He once said that he never did try to get too technical but that he always tried to “reason things out and, from the evidence, give common sense judgments.”
     A resident of Fort Towson since 1906, Mr. White at one time knew every man, woman and child within his jurisdiction, which extended from the Kiamichi River east to the Choctaw – Mcurtain [sic] county line, and north and south from Spencerville to Frogville. He saw Fort Towson grow to a thriving [unreadable] town of several thousand population.
     Joe Sherwood White was born near Atlanta, Tex., January 29, 1872, and moved with his parents south of Honey Grove before he was a year old.
     Before venturing over into Indian Territory he rounded up cattle in Collins and Hill counties in Texas. Then he brought his family over into the new state “to accumulate a home.”
     When his health failed and he couldn’t stand the exposure and more arduous work on the farm, he turned to politics. He made the race for justice of the peace in 1929, was re-elected and served for eight years. The he was out of office for two years before being elected again for his fifth term.
     Uncle Joe White walked slowly and he wrote slowly. Old Timers at Fort Towson used to recall only one time when residents there ever saw him in a hurry. That was when he decided in five minutes to rush a prisoner to the county jail at Hugo to escape a mob.
     Survivors include four daughters, Mrs. Leota Robinson of Dallas, Mrs. Elvin W. Cook of Durant, Mrs. Roxie Henderson of Denison, Tex., and Mrs. Claud Leonard of Rush Springs; five grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and eight great-great grandchildren.