James Larkin White

James Larkin White (July 11, 1882 – April 26, 1946), better known as Jim White, was a cowboy, guano miner, cave explorer, and park ranger for the National Park Service. He is best remembered as the discoverer, early promoter and explorer of what is known today as Carlsbad Caverns in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico.

Birth

Jim White was born on July 11, 1882, on a ranch in Mason County, Texas. He started working in the cattle business at a very early age and preferred it to the school his father forced him to attend. He preferred "bustin' broncos to books and blackboards". One day, when Jim had had enough of school, he begged his father to let him do something else. "I want to be a cowboy", he said. So, when he was 10 years old, his father agreed to take him to the southeastern corner of the New Mexico Territory. He left him at the ranch of John and Dan Lucas (XXX Ranch). His father bought land at Lonetree, just west of the developing town of Eddy (Carlsbad today), and moved the rest of the family there three years later. Jim occasionally stayed at his family's small horse farm, but mostly lived and worked at the Lucas ranch.

James Larkin

James (Jim) Larkin (21 January 1876 – 30 January 1947) was an Irish trade union leader and socialist activist, born to Irish parents in Liverpool, England. He and his family later moved to a small cottage in Burren, southern County Down. Growing up in poverty, he received little formal education and began working in a variety of jobs while still a child. He became a full-time trade union organiser in 1905.

Larkin moved to Belfast in 1907 and founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, the Irish Labour Party, and later the Workers' Union of Ireland. Perhaps best known for his role in the 1913 Dublin Lockout, "Big Jim" continues to occupy a significant place in Dublin's collective memory.

Biography

Early years

Larkin was born on 21 January 1876 the second eldest son of Irish immigrants, James Larkin and Mary Ann McNulty, both natives of County Armagh. The impoverished Larkin family lived in the slums of Liverpool during the early years of his life. From the age of seven, he attended school in the mornings and worked in the afternoons to supplement the family income—a common arrangement in working-class families at the time. At the age of fourteen, after the death of his father, he was apprenticed to the firm his father had worked for but was dismissed after two years. He was unemployed for a time and then worked as a sailor and docker. By 1903, he was a dock foreman, and on 8 September of that year, he married Elizabeth Brown.

James Larkin (disambiguation)

James Larkin may refer to:

James Larkin (Independent Fianna Fáil)

James Larkin (22 August 1932 – 6 October 1998) was an Irish politician. He was nominated by the Taoiseach Charles Haughey to Seanad Éireann in 1982 and served until 1983. He was elected a member of the Letterkenny Urban District Council in 1967. He was chairman of the council on five different occasions. He was founder member of Independent Fianna Fáil. He was the director of elections for Independent Fianna Fáil leader Neil Blaney. His son Dessie Larkin is a Fianna Fáil member of Donegal County Council.

References