Born: July 28, 1849, Rocky Hill, Connecticut.
Died: May 30, 1928, Otsego, Michigan.
Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Battle Creek, Michigan.
White was the son of two of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, James Springer White and Ellen Gould Harmon. He married twice, to Emma L. McDearmon and Rebecca Burrill Stephenson (1922).
The publishing organization he established was originally known as the Gospel Herald Publishing Company.
It was taken over by the church and renamed to Southern Publishing Association in 1901. It merged with the Review and Herald Publishing Association in 1980.
White also founded the J. E. White publishing company in Battle Creek, Michigan.