Business card front: "Compliments of T. C. White & Co., Corsicana, Texas." Back: " T. C. White & Co., Wholesale and retail dealers in Boots and shoes, No. 27 North Benton Street, Special attention is called to our own manufactured Brogans and Men's fine boots and shoes." Dimensions: 5.19 x 3.34 in. (13.18 x 8.48 cm)
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Hill Texas Archive Research Notes
T. C. White & Co. is not listed in any 19th century city directories for Corsicana. The only shoe company found in Corsicana newspapers that might be related to T. C. White is Bates & White, who advertised in the early 1880s as boot and shoe dealers only. Thomas C. White is listed in the 1880 census as a 31 year old shoe dealer living in Corsicana. By 1900, his occupation is recorded as a merchant, and his full name appears on his son's death certificate as Thomas Cyrus White. His grave marker in Oakwood Cemetery, Corsicana, Texas, records his birth on January 28, 1849, and his death on February 10, 1912. It is unclear if White's company was in the business of making the shoes themselves, or acting as manufacturer's merchants.