Joseph Oliver White near Walnut Cove, North Carolina was born on December 20, 1838. White partnered with William Rowzee in running the Mansion House, a hotel in Salisbury, Rowan County. In 1870 George W. Kirk's troops visited Salisbury after arresting someone on insurrection charges, and democratic newspapers later claimed that Kirk's men fired into the Mansion House by mistake. White died in Salisbury on May 31, 1920.