Sec. A Page 14 Missoulian Centennial White House Has Unusual History
White House Has Unusual History
This is the house in which three children of Mr. and Mrs. George P. White were born at Hell Gate, but each in a year in which Hell Gate was in a different territory.
The first son, one of the first white children born in Montana, was George H. White, born in 1863, when the house was in Washington Territory. A brother, W. W. (Chick) White, was born in the house in 1864, when it was in Idaho Territory. He died in May of 1936.
Richard White was born in the house June 19, 1866, when it was in Montana Territory. He died in February of 1940. The first son lived the longest, dying May 21, 1943, at the age of 80.
A sister, Mrs. Lillian Rossbach, was born in the same house before Montana was admitted to statehood.
The story of the three births that occurred in three territories in a house that wasn’t moved has appeared in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not.”
This above story from The Missoulian appeared under a picture of the original White House. While the picture does not appear to be available digitally, a drawing of their house appears in an Anaconda Standard article about the White family titled, “The White Ranch at Missoula.”
This article appeared in The Anaconda Standard, May 1, 1904.
A link to that Anaconda Standard article appears below:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/42765696/