Walter Prescott Webb was born April 3, 1888 to Casner P. Webb (1862 – 1940) and Mary Elizabeth Kyle Webb (1855 – 1949) in Panola County, Texas. His father Casner’s occupation was listed as a school teacher in the 1900 census and as a farmer in the 1910 census. Most likely, Casner supported his family by teaching and farming. The family moved a number of times to tenant farms while Casner also served in local schools as a teacher. Walter Prescott Webb was one of three siblings of Casner and Mary Elizabeth Webb to reach maturity and was the middle child between two sisters. He attended high school in Ranger and earned an undergraduate degree at University of Texas in Austin. He later earned a master’s degree there and was awarded a doctorate from University of Chicago for his literary work.
Webb taught school at various levels, including high schools in Cuero, Beeville and possibly one other town, two colleges in England (University of London and Oxford University), Texas State University, Rice University, University of Houston and the University of Texas at Austin.
He was the author of numerous books on Texas and the southwest including “The Great Plains” in 1931, “The Texas Rangers” in 1935, “Divided We Stand,” “The Great Frontier,” “More Water for Texas” and others. Critiques and reviews of these books may be found online. Webb served as president of the Texas State Historical Association from about 1939 to 1946 and is credited for the production of the “Handbook of Texas,” a historical encyclopedia of the state.
The “Handbook of Texas” was later released as a two volume set in December, 1952. A newspaper article at the time described it as containing 15,896 entries “concerning places, persons, events, organizations, enterprises, industries, agricultural pursuits and other factors which have been significant in the history, development and way of life of Texas and Texans.” Now known as the Handbook of Texas Online, the original publication was produced by more than one hundred staff and student writers, assisted by twenty-one advisors who were writers and historians in various aspects of Texas history. Webb served as editor-in-chief. It was printed and designed by The Lakeside Press out of Chicago and was sold for the estimated cost of production.
Webb was good friends with folklorist J. Frank Dobie and naturalist Roy Bedichek. At one point they saw each other almost every day in Austin when they were all on the faculty at University of Texas. All three were notable in different ways but their friendship remained strong for the rest of their lives. Bedichek was the first to pass away in 1959, Webb passed on in 1963 and Dobie in 1964. Thirty years later, a statue was created depicting the three seated or standing at the Barton Springs pool. The project was awarded to sculptor Glenna Goodacre, already well known for her work that included the Women in Vietnam that is located in the Washington, D. C. Mall. In the Austin work, the three are facing each other carrying on a discussion. Bedickek and Dobie are wearing swimming trunks while Webb is dressed in rumpled casual clothes. It was unveiled in 1994.
Webb was twice married. His first wife was the former Jane Elizabeth Oliphant (1889 – 1960) whom he married in 1918. They had one child and remained married until Jane’s death. The following year, he married Terrell Louise Dobbs Maverick (1901 – 1994), the widow of Maury Maverick (1895 – 1954), a grandson of Samuel Maverick.
Webb died at the age of seventy-four when the car he and Terrell were in in left the roadway near Buda on Interstate 35. The vehicle then overturned several times. No other cause is given for the accident. Mrs. Terrell Maverick Webb had just completed her work as editor of “Ellen Maury Slayden, Washington Wife” published by Harper and Rowe. Webb had penned the introduction. Though Maury is also commonly used as a first name, it was a family name on the Maverick side. The mother of Terrell’s late husband Maury Maverick, Sr. was Jane Lewis Maury (1858 – 1954), the wife of Albert Maverick. Ellen Maury Slaydon was the aunt of Maury Maverick. She had served as the first society editor of the San Antonio Express and was the author of other articles as well. The source of Terrell’s book were the previously unpublished memoirs that Mrs. Slaydon had written concerning her experiences while in Washington. Her husband, James Luther Slaydon had been a United States Congressman from Texas, serving for twenty-two years. The Webbs were on the road promoting the book when the accident occurred. Webb was killed and Terrell was badly injured, though she survived and recovered.
In addition to the Bedichek, Dobie and Webb statue described above, Governor John Connally, Jr. issued a proclamation for Webb to be buried on Republic Hill in Austin’s Texas State Cemetery. His wife Jane Oliphant Webb is buried at Austin’s Oakwood Cemtery. His wife Terrell Dobbs Maverick Webb was a long time resident of San Antonio. She passed in 1994 and is buried there at San Jose Burial Park.
Some of his other honors include having an Austin middle school named for him. The University of Texas at Austin established the Walter Prescott Webb Chair of History and Ideas. Faculty and students at several Texas colleges and universities gathered together in October 1973 and created what is called “a state-wide nexus of college and university history organizations” and is known as the Walter Prescott Webb Historical Society. Each year since 1965, the University of Texas at Arlington has sponsored a series of lectures called the Webb Lecture Series. He was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Hall of Great Westerners in 2012.
In its March 11, 1963 issue, the Waco News-Tribune honored Webb with this paragraph, “Dr. Webb’s vision of the South, from East Texas to the Atlantic Ocean, was much more optimistic so far as the resources he listed in that warm and friendly section of the nation. He insisted that once the South has caught up from its deficiencies in education and human relations, it should be the nation’s leader in economic growth. The climate, soil, water and other natural advantages, he said, are all weighted heavily in a favor of a thriving and expanding southland. These resources, he recognized, account only for about 20 per cent of the growth factor of any society. The other 80 per cent must come from the people – their brains, attitudes, skills and labor.”
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