John Baker White: "After You Send Hitler to Hell"

Going through the boxes of family letters my husband's ancestors left behind is like going through a box of puzzle pieces in which ten different puzzles are jumbled together. I will find a puzzle piece that looks as if may fit one puzzle and then discover that it fits another altogether. A close fit is not a perfect fit. 

So far I have been concentrating on the Armstrong family, the family of Tom's great-grandfather, Baker White Armstrong, Sr.  Baker's mother was a White, so I pulled out the White puzzle in the last post, trying to find a fit for the antecedents of that mother, Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong. As I mentioned in the last post, putting the puzzles together is all the more difficult because so many of these relatives, some even in the same generation, share the same names. Which Robert White is this text referring to--Robert White, the British surgeon who came to America or his son Robert White who fought in the Revolutionary War or Robert White who fought for the Confederacy? The list of John Baker Whites is just as confusing.

But every once in a while I will discover two or three puzzle pieces that fit, and that's what I think I have here. I ended the last post with a copy of a photo of a man with the name John Baker White written beneath the photo. While I am not quite sure where this John Baker White fits in the family tree of my husband's great-grandmother, Louisa, I am sure that he is a relative (most likely one of Louisa's nephews). This John Baker White must be the same John Baker White who wrote a letter to my husband's great-uncle, Baker White Armstrong, Jr., in 1943. Baker White Armstrong, Jr., was, of course, a grandson of Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong and Edward McCarty Armstrong, Sr., and the only son of Baker White Armstrong, Sr. In 1943, Baker White Armstrong, Jr., was serving his country in World War II. While I will be writing much more about this Baker in later posts [I previously introduced him in this early post], here I will jump ahead from 1887, the year Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong died, to 1943, in order to bring to you two small pieces of a puzzle: a letter and a photograph.

Here, again, is the photograph:

 

And here is the letter. Click on the image for a readable view.

This photograph is most likely that of a John Baker White from the generation following that of Louisa Tapscott White Armstrong's generation; this is surely one of her nephews.

 I transcribe the letter here as best I can (including a paragraph break for easier reading):

U. S. Veterans Hospital--Huntington, WV. Nov. 16--1943

Lt. Baker White Armstrong

2300 So Arlington Ridge Road

Arlington, Virginia

My Dear Lieutenant:

I have just received a letter from Lt. Stanley C. Dadisman saying you room across the hall from him. I am awfully glad to get track of you as I had almost lost contact with the family since your esteemed father died. Lt. Dadisman mentioned you would be interested in knowing your connection with the family. Well, if I were at home & able to get any papers I could give you a lot of family history, but I have been a patient in this hospital for 3 months suffering from a heart breakdown, but I will endeavor to give you a short line on our genealogy & you can do doubt fill in some of the missing links. My great grandfather Robert White was a Capt. & Brevet Major in the Continental Army & was seriously wounded in the battle of Monmouth, N. J. & invalided home & "limped" to his grave in 1833 (See Kercheval's History of the Valley & Foote's Sketches of Va [Anita's note: Foote's text is in Google Books online] both in the Congressional Library. Robert White was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati in Virginia.  I hold membership in that Order by reason of being his eldest living male descendant in the male line. I also belong to the Sons of the Revolution, to which you are elligible (sic) by reason of being a descendant of Capt. Robert White. Capt. White was Judge of the General Court of Virginia from 179-- to 1833 & was quite a distinguished jurist.

I married at 70 a Miss Mary Ann Williamson she is 51 & a professor of English at Marshall College here in Huntington, she is good looking, brilliant & good to me & a fine character, we are very happy, would like to have you meet her sometime.

I wish for you my dear cousin an honorable & distinguishable career & a safe return to your family after you send Hitler to Hell.

Sincerely yours

John Baker White

In this letter, John Baker White included a handwritten family tree, with much missing and some inaccurate information. For instance, he lists Edward McCarty Armstrong as marrying Susan Armstrong--but Edward McCarty Armstrong, as we well know after going through all these letters and posting them on this blog--was married to Louisa Tapscott White (daughter of John Baker White and Frances Streit). But for the record, here are images of that handwritten yet incomplete family tree. Click on each image for a readable view.