Founder of the E.B. White Grain Company, Virginia state senator and one of the most decorated Percheron breeders in history.
1864-1926 | Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876-1936)
Impact & Accomplishments
Born in Page County, Virginia, to Confederate Cavalry hero Elijah Viers White, E. B. White was a state senator and president of the Peoples National Bank at his death.
The graduate of a Baltimore business school, White moved to St. Louis in 1894. There, he founded the E. B. White Grain Company, which quickly became one of the largest grain exporters in the United States.
His health failing, he returned to Leesburg, Virginia, in 1903 and purchased Selma Farm, where he bred Percheron horses. White served as president of the Percheron Society of America. For a time, he was also editor of the Leesburg newspaper, The Record.
Senator E. B. White was credited with breeding more International Grand Champion Percherons than any other individual. His best known sires were Dragon and Laet, champions at the International Live Stock Exposition.
Did You Know?
This is the great Percheron sire, Laet, c. 1930 with John Haxton up. Laet was bred by E. B. White at his Selma, Va. Farm, and later sold to W.H. Butler of Woodside Farms in Columbus, IN.
Laet was Chicago International Grand Champion Stallion 1921, sired 9 of 13 stallions named Grand Champion at Chicago International from 1923 to 1936, was named Premier Sire of Breed 6 times from 1928 to 1936, and won “Champion Get-of-Sire of Breed” 9 times from 1922 to 1936. Photo credit: Australian Percheron Society.