User:Sakia.rumei
Biography[edit]
Elizabeth Coleman White was a oldest of four daughters of two Quaker parents and the only one to remain unmarried to pursue the family's agricultural interest. After 1887, White worked in the bogs helping to supervise the cranberry pickers during the fall harvest and was soon deeply invovled in the farms operations. During the winters, White continued her education on courses in first aid, photography, dressmaking, and millinery at Drexel University. [1] White belonged to several organizations, including being the first woman to become member of the American Cranberry Association and the first female to receive a citation from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture[2].
Child Labor Controversy[edit]
In 1910, a controversy appeared when an agent of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) issued a report of child labor in the cranberry industry. As one third of the cranberry farms was harvested by J.J. White Inc, Elizabeth White wrote letters and spoke out against the report to defend her father's company and industry. The argument, from NCLC investigators, was that it was the parents who recruited their children under the age of 14 to work ten hour shifts. White argued and reported that children played in the clean air and will work at the request of parents. The hearings for this controversy continued for four years until the NCLC printed a retraction in the Trenton times and acknowledge Whit's efforts as peacemaker. White also conceded that children missed school between the months of September and October due to the harvest and believed in an informal education for children who missed school due to this reason. White worked with the Women's Home Mission Council to provide babysitting services for younger children and informal educational and recreational programs for older ones.[3] [4]
She died of cancer in Whitesbog on November 27, 1954 at the age of 83. She was cremated at Ewing Crematory in Ewing Township, NJ, and her ashes were distributed by airplane over the headwaters of Whitesbog in accordance to her will.
- ^ Byers, Michelle; Cowling, Sheila. "Elect Elizabeth White to the New Jersey Hall of Fame" (PDF).
- ^ Parrott, Charles. "The Woman Who Cultivated a Billion-Dollar Industry". United States Department of Agriculture.
- ^ Knackmuhs, Ginny. "The Blueberry: Born & Bred in New Jersey" (PDF). Retrieved May 6, 2015.
- ^ Byers, Michelle; Cowling, Sheila. "Elect Elizabeth White to the New Jersey Hall of Fame" (PDF).