John Baker White (clerk of court)

No court proceedings convened in the county between 1861 and 1864,[5][11] and the Hampshire County Courthouse was utilized as a stable by Union soldiers stationed in Romney during the war.[12][13] In 1861, Union Army forces under the command of Lew Wallace occupied Romney following a minor battle there during which White "kept close watch over" the county's record books so that they would not be destroyed by Union forces.[12] Later in the fall of 1861, Union Army forces under the command of Benjamin Franklin Kelley advanced upon Romney.[12]

Upon learning of this, White was again concerned for the safety of the county's records and proceeded to load land registration records ledger books onto wagons and had them transported to Winchester for safekeeping. White selected for transport only the bound volumes of records which included "deed books, wills, and settlements of estates" and kept the unbound paper records in the courthouse, thus separating them so that the entirety of the county's records could not be destroyed by Union forces. White likely chose to transport the bound volumes of records, as the loose paper records would have been more cumbersome to keep together.[12][13]

The Hampshire County Courthouse in Romney, where John Baker White served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County. This courthouse was built in 1833 and remained in service until it burned in 1921.

In 1863, when Winchester was no longer a safe location for the storage of Hampshire County's records and they again risked destruction by Union Army forces, White's son Captain Christian Streit White took responsibility for the records and transferred them to Front Royal.[12][13][14] When Front Royal became endangered by advancing Union Army forces, Captain White had the records moved to Luray Caverns where they remained for several months.[11][13][14] In the fall of 1864, the county's record books were rescued by Captain White and his company as Union Army troops were in the process of destroying them.[13][14] Captain White's company loaded about 150 record books into a wagon, and they were taken to North Carolina where they remained safely for the duration of the war.[11][13][14] Hampshire County's land records survived and were returned to the courthouse following the conclusion of the American Civil War,[11] likely by a soldier returning to the area from North Carolina.[14] Had White not separated the records and sent the bound volumes away for safekeeping, Hampshire County would have lost all its records during the course of the war, as those that remained in the courthouse were destroyed.[12]

In addition to the desecration of the courthouse's loose paper records, either a Union Army officer or an Indiana unit confiscated an old Scots language Bible belonging to White, which had been passed down to him from his grandfather, John White.[15][16] The "old Scots Bible" was purportedly taken as punishment against White for his support of the Confederacy.[16]

White left Romney with his wife and youngest children and traveled to Richmond where he was offered a position in the Confederate States Department of the Treasury within the government of the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis.[2][4][11]

White was married first to Alcinda Louisa Tapscott of Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on December 15, 1815. Tapscott was White's cousin through his mother, Arabella Baker White.[1][2][4] White and his first wife Alcinda had three children together:

White was married for the second time to Frances Ann Streit (March 19, 1811 – November 12, 1866), a daughter of Lutheran Reverend Christian Streit of Winchester, Virginia.[3][4][18] Streit and her family were of Swiss descent.[19] White and his second wife, Frances, had ten children (one of which died in infancy):

Portrait	Name[3][4]	Birth date	Death date	Spouse
	Robert White[2]	February 7, 1833[2][3][4]	December 12, 1915[4]	Ellen E. Vass[2]
	Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong[20]	July 7, 1836[20]	August 20, 1887[20]	Edward McCarty Armstrong, son of U.S. Representative William Armstrong[20]
	John Baker White II[21]	1837[4][21]	1858[4]	Unmarried
	Christian Streit White[22]	March 10, 1839[22]	January 28, 1917[4][23]	Elizabeth "Bessie" Jane Schultze Catharine Steele[22]
	Alexander White[21]	1841[3][4][21]	1884[4]	Susan L. Williams of Hardy County[21]
	Henry White	1842[4]	1903[4]	Unmarried
	Frances "Fannie" Ann Armstrong White Flournoy[24]	April 10, 1844[3][25][26]	February 25, 1922[26]	Samuel Lightfoot Flournoy[24][25][26]
	Emma C. White	1846[4]
	Lucy White	1849[4]
	Katherine White	1849[4]

White's residence, which later became known as "Liberty Hall," along East Main Street in Romney

White and his family resided in a large brick mansion located along East Main Street (Northwestern Turnpike) which was later known as "Liberty Hall". Due to his upbringing in an affluent family, White was a person of means from a young age, and in his early adulthood he was able to construct a "large brick mansion" at this location. His original residence was destroyed by fire in 1857, and White replaced it with a more modest brick edifice where he resided until his departure from Romney in 1861 during the American Civil War. White's home was a "seat of true old Virginia hospitality" and it was frequented by all socio-cultural strata of Hampshire County and the greater Valley of Virginia region.[1][2]

During the construction of the Northwestern Turnpike through Romney, the state superintendent for the project, Angus William McDonald, proposed building the thoroughfare through White's garden in front of his residence. White won an appeal in court which caused the turnpike to be rerouted, thus creating the present curve on East Main Street in front of White's former residence.[27]