Clarissa Ann White was one of five daughters of William Washington White and Ann Bell Whitaker White. She was nine years old when her father died, without a will, before his 38th birthday, leaving his frail young wife to manage the huge White plantation and rear their five young daughters. But the immense wealth of the White family with their huge antebellum home and plantation, their life-style of extreme luxury, and over 80 Negro slaves in those pre-Civil War days was to change drastically. Ann Bell White developed tuberculosis and lost her hard fought battle for life. Three years after his death she was laid to rest by her husband in the White family cemetery in Whitesville, Georgia. She was 37 years old. At her death the court process of settling the huge estate took ten years to complete( A portion of the White land that contained the White Mill was later purchased by Callaway Gardens.) Clarissa and two of her sisters were sent away to a boarding school, the Hamilton Female College. In 1859 Clarissa and 3 of her sisters journeyed to Tuskeegee, Alabama to attend school at the Tuskeegee Female Academy. In the next years they attended La Grange College 14 miles from Whitesville. By 1863 Union troops were getting close to Whitesville. Before the troops moved into Whitesville, the oldest White daughter, Dorliska, and her husband Richard Kennon moved the family to Fort Gaines in Clay County, Georgia. The family members included Richard, Dorliska, their 2 children, Richard's mother and the four White sisters. Also, the last of the house servants accompanied them. By July,1865 the war was over the huge White plantation and the immense fortune was gone. On October 16th, 1866 Clarissa Ann White married Charles Pinckney West, Jr. at the home of Dorliska and Richard Kennon in Fort Gaines. On December 15.1866 Charles Pinckney West, Jr. collected $7,783.89 due him in right of his wife Clarissa Ann White (now West) from her "father's estate"...a tiny inheritance from a once enormous legacy.