James White was born to Moses and Mary (McConnell) White in Rowan (later Iredell) County, North Carolina in 1747. He married Mary Lawson (d. 1819) on April 14, 1770, and the couple had seven children: Margaret (White) McClung (1771-1827), Hugh Lawson (1773-1840), Moses (1775-), Andrew (1779-1806), Mary McConnell (White) May Overton (1782-1862), Cynthia Barry (White) Smith (1786-1855), and Melinda (White) Williams (1789-1838). White served as a captain during the Revolutionary War and used his land grant to acquire 1,000 acres at the present site of Knoxville, Tennessee. When Knox County was established in 1792, he laid out and sold lots for residences in what would become Knoxville. White was also heavily involved in politics, participating in the convention that created the State of Franklin (1785), in the convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States of America (1787), and in the constitutional convention for the State of Tennessee (1796). He went on to represent Knox County in the state legislature and to serve as a Brigadier-General in the Creek War of 1813. James White died on August 14, 1821 and is buried in the First Presbyterian Church graveyard.

Hugh Lawson White was born to James and Mary (Lawson) White in Iredell County, North Carolina on October 30, 1773. His family moved to Knox County, Tennessee (then part of North Carolina) in 1785. Hugh L. White participated in an expedition against the Cherokee in about 1793 and went on to pursue classical studies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and to study law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He practiced law in Knoxville before becoming involved in politics. White served as the Judge of the State Superior Court (1801-1807), as a Tennessee State Senator (1807-1809; 1817-1825), and as Judge of the State Supreme Court (1809-1815) before being elected to the U.S. Senate as a Jacksonian to fill the vacancy caused by Andrew Jackson's resignation. White remained in the Senate until January of 1840, when he resigned in protest over the Tennessee general assembly's passage of a series of resolutions instructing White and his Senate colleague Ephraim H. Foster to vote for the policies of the Van Buren administration. In 1840, White accepted the state Whig Party's nomination as an at-large elector for William Henry Harrison but died at his home in Knoxville on April 10, 1840 before he could begin campaigning.