M.M. White was a lifelong member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. He was brought to Indiana as an infant, growing up first in Washington and then Henry County. In 1847 he entered Friends Boarding School, now Earlham College, in Richmond, Indiana, as one of its first students. He would later serve on its board of trustees, and, with his brother Francis, be responsible for its first quarter million dollars of endowment.

After finishing school, M.M. White went into business in Cincinnati as a wholesale grocer. In 1861, he and his brother, with J. N. Newsom, formed a private bank. It merged with the Fourth National Bank in 1872, and M.M. White became the president of Fourth National in 1875. He retired in 1908. At his death, he left an estate in excess of $5 million.

Mordecai Morris and Francis Toms White were the only grandchildren of their maternal grandfather, Mordecai Morris. In 1851, they faced a moral test growing out of his estate.

Mordecai Morris was a well-to-do Quaker farmer in Perquimans County, North Carolina. In 1834 he was approached by a slave on a neighboring farm, Boston White. White's owner had died and his property was to be sold at auction. Boston White feared and that he and his wife would be separated. He proposed that if Mordecai Morris would purchase them at the auction, they would work off their purchase price on his farm. This presented Morris with a dilemma--he was sympathetic, but the Discipline of Friends did not allow members to purchase slaves, even with good motives. Nevertheless Mordecai Morris decided to do it. He was high bidder at the auction, and, refusing to admit that he had done anything wrong, was disowned by the Friends.

Mordecai Morris died in 1846, leaving his two grandsons in Indiana as heirs to his property. The understanding had been that they would bring the slave family to Indiana and set them free there. In 1851 Mordecai and Francis made the journey to North Carolina. By this time, Boston White and his wife had ten children. The plan was that they would go to Norfolk, Virginia, taking a ship from there to Baltimore, then go west by railroad and the National Road to Indiana. In Norfolk, a slave trader spotted the White brothers with the black family, and offered $10,000 in gold for the slaves. That was a small fortune, enough to establish a business or purchase a good farm. But Mordecai and Francis White passed the moral test. They refused the offer and proceeded to Indiana. Boston White and his family were settled on their own farm near the White home at Raysville in Henry County, Indiana.

The Knightstown (IN) Banner, Friday, October 3, 1913
VETERAN BANKER PASSES AWAY
M.M. WHITE, CINCINNATI FINANCIER, AND HALF BROTHER OF A. S. WHITE DIES TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Mordecai Morris White, aged 83 years, one of the well-known bankers of the Queen city and chairman of the board of directors of the Fourth National Bank of Cincinnati, died at his Mt. Auburn home at 1:40 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, following an illness of several weeks. Deceased was a half brother of Allen S. White, of this city.

Mr. White was a native of Perquimons county, North Carolina, where he was born February 3, 1830. The same year he came with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John F. White, to Washington county, Indiana. His parents were of the old-time Quaker faith throughout his life time.

Few men of great wealth were universally respected and esteemed as was Mr. White. His sterling qualities and an upright business career endeared him to the hearts of all with whom he came in contact.

After taking a full course Mr. White graduated from Earlham College in 1850. He then took a commercial course in Cincinnati. Mr. White retained until his death a warm and intense interest in Earlham College and was for years a member of the executive committee of that well-known institution of learning. He also contributed largely to its financial support.

Mr. White has been one of the most honored as well as the most successful of the bankers of Cincinnati and his reputation had a national scope. He was a student of finance and an authority on financial subjects. As a banker he was strict in business, but underneath was a vein of kindness and a willingness to help deserving business men in their struggles, and many a young business man owes his success to Mr. White’s indulgence and assistance. Two men, it is said, whom he saved from financial ruin, afterwards became stockholders in the Fourth National Bank of Cincinnati.

Mr. White was married November 8, 1863, to Hannah Amelia Coffin, daughter of Elijah Coffin, an Indiana banker. She survives him, as does their four daughters, Mrs. John Gates, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Theodore W. Cramp, Philadelphia; Mrs. Clarence Price, New York, and Mrs. George D. Eustis, Cincinnati.

Following is a tribute to the deceased from the pen of Dr. J. W. White:
Mordecai Morris White, of Cincinnati, Oho, died at his home in Mt. Auburn, Tuesday afternoon in his 83rd year. He was the son of John T. White, father of Allen S. White, and was largely raised in this township.

He attended Earlham College or rather the Friends Boarding School and graduated in 1850.

He began his business life with the mercantile house of Wood Bacon & Co. in the city of Philadelphia. In 1858 he began business with A. H. Wells & co. in Cincinnati. He was afterwards joined by his brother, Francis T., and the firm was then Wells White & Co. In 1859 Mr. Wells retired when the firm became White Bros. & Co. This firm continued as wholesale grocers until 1874.

In 1861 they became interested in banking with J. Newsom and organized a private bank under the name of Newsom, White & Co., the White brothers furnishing more than two-thirds of the capital. This firm was dissolved in 1872. The business was transferred to the Fourth National Bank, of Cincinnati, of which M. M. White became president in 1875. This continued until 1908, when he retired from the presidency and became chairman of the board of directors, of which his brother, Francis, was also a member.

As brothers they were always closely associated in business affairs until the death of Francis T., a few years ago.

The boys were well-known by many of the older people of this community and had many warm, personal friends in the generation now fast passing away. They were grandsons of Mordecai Morris, of North Carolina, from whom they inherited quite a large plantation and several slaves whom they liberated and settled in this state and Ohio.

Morris M. made it a rule to visit his brother, Allen, and the scenes of his boyhood days once each year, generally in June and always enjoyed meeting his old acquaintances and early friends. He was a very companionable man, kind and genial and of generous disposition. He kept the faith of his fathers, who were Quakers for generations back.

He was interested in Earlham College and a liberal contributor to its endowment fund, as he was to Young Men’s Christian Associations, as well as benevolent and other moral and religious organizations. Early in the eighteen hundred and fifties he married Hannah A. Coffin, daughter of Elijah Coffin, an early banker of Richmond, Ind. He had four daughters, all married and well settled in life.

Thus has passed away one more of the number who linked the present with the past generations now fast becoming only a memory.