Back when I started to search my family history, I was given a copy of the tree by my grandmother. I’m sorry, I think I’ve said this 8 million times. I’ll try not to repeat myself so much. In the front of the tree, there was a little paragraph that started out explaining about our Webb line.
James F, Vincent, and George Washington Webb were three of five known children who were orphaned at an early age by the death of both parents. There may have been other children. Upon the death of their parents, they were taken in by various families and were reared to adulthood on that basis. There is no information on the other two children. James lived in Brown County, Ohio and died at an early age from Civil War wounds. Vincent moved to Romney, Tippecanoe County, Indiana. George lived generally in Brown and Clermont Counties of Ohio and Pendleton County, Kentucky Court House records reveal that he owned land in that county. By some Accounts and by an entry in Congressional Record, George Washington Webb is credited with discovering white burley tobacco. The family legend of their having one fourth American Indian blood has not been confirmed.
Okay, so that’s what I started with. I eventually found out Vincent Webb was actually Reuben Thompson Webb. George and James’ information is mostly correct. However, they were NOT orphaned at an early age. As of 1850 their father, Reuben H Webb was alive and living with James and his young family in Highland County, Ohio.
Eventually I even found the names of two more children in an online tree, Alice and Nathaniel. I couldn’t find any documentation for Nathaniel at the time, but I did find Alice. So I was up to four out of five children! Not bad!
Sunday night, I was doing some random Google searches. I ended up typing in Reuben Webb, Tippecanoe IN. I knew he was in the Civil War and lost his eye. I knew he was in Tippecanoe for at least 50 to 60 years. I figured if I was going to find anything out about the parents, it would be from him because it surely didn’t come from my Gr-Gr-Great Grandfather George Washington Webb. Little did I know, I struck a goldmine. My search resulted in a biography written as part of a compilation of biographies to outline the history of many Indiana counties. The book is called, Biographical History of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren, and Pulaski Counties, Indiana. Reuben T’s biography appears on pages 319-322 of Volume 1. It was published by Lewis Publishing Company and can be found on Amazon and Google Books.
The biography transcript was removed because I don’t want to violate copyrights. I finally managed to get the main page to load, so I’ve removed the transcript from the blog because it says no reproductions are allowed on the web in any part.
The biography was originally published in 1899! The full transcript can be found here. So this was written while Reuben Thompson Webb was still living. Not only that but it gives a huge background on the Webb families. Now all I have to do is back it up with records. I’m going to slowly gather these but this biography blew the little paragraph out of the water.
