Lester (the older son of Luther and Mahala White) had preceeded his own
     family and parents, brother and sister when he came to Kansas from Linn
     County, Missouri in February 1884. There was but one claim shanty when he
     arrived. He chose the 160 acres southwest of the Isabel site.
       The families came by rail to Harper then by wagon pulled by oxen with
     their household goods aboard. Their first house was a 'dugout' half below
     the ground and half sod.
       Lester had married Susan D. McCarty in Linn County, Missouri on January
     1, 1872. Their children were two daughters, Jennie White Blackwelder and
     Nora White Sellers. Their sons were Otis, Burt and Charley. In 1889 they
     also assumed the care of 'Little Blanchie Bailey' in an article of agreement.
       Lester and brother Layton some times 'freighted' to Harper for supplies.
     While on trips they gathered and sold the bleached buffalo bones left on
     the prairie by earlier fur traders.
       Lester had Kansas fever from the beginning. He wrote letters in his scholarly
     manner praising the weather, the crops, the open roads and the friendliness
     of the people. He helped other families find land on which to settle.
       He was a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge and a charter member of the first
     Methodist class (the Bethel Class) which met in the schoolhouse on the Chan
     Kilmer farm. When the first school was organized in 1886, he was made clerk
     of the school board.
       After leaving farming Lester devoted his time to real estate and the
     insurance business. He had an office on Main Street in Isabel.
       He died 10 January, 1934 at the age of 86.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 485 
     Submitted by: Edith Peterie Hoyt