John P. White
John P. White (1827-1890) was a lawyer and businessman who owned an eighty-acre tract farm along West Church Street in West Urbana. He contributed to the West Urbana area under the firm name of Farnam, Clarke, and White with his partners Jeffrey A. Farnam and Nathan M. Clark, both of whom were Illinois Central engineers. This addition included a donation of 15 acres set apart for a public park, which became the first one in the county in April 1855, two months before his marriage to Miss Henrietta Preble. It was first known as White Park in honor of him, although it was later renamed City Park and finally West Side Park, which it is called to this day.
The park is home to several footpaths, a fountain entitled "The Prayer for Rain" sculpted by Edward Kemeys in 1899, and a bandstand that hosted prominent turn-of-the-century public speakers like Teddy Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan. Possibly at his partners' wishes, White is given sole credit for the gift on the monument erected on West University Avenue. Other notable instances of White's generosity include donating the sites where the "Little Brick" schoolhouse and the West High School were built in 1855 and 1868, the first two public school buildings in District No.1. Little Brick was torn down in 1893, with the new Central School building on the same site being used for the next 21 years. West High, a more expensive building with three stories and a basement, was destroyed by a fire in 1893.
“In the later years of his life Mr. White met with many reversals of fortune and finally died in poverty, but this, as is too often the case, should not be a reason for neglecting or forgetting him. On the contrary, it should constitute a motive to inspire the people to do something liberal to honor the memory of the man who made large sacrifices in the days of his prosperity in order to promote their welfare and happiness.” -W.T. Green, "Our West Side City Park", Urbana Daily News, 11 October 1899, pp. 6.