Biography of Thomas J Webb, Sebastian Co, AR

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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Thomas J. Webb was born near Nashville, Tenn., in 1821, and is the oldest of
four children born to Kendall and  Mary (Dugal) Webb, natives of Maryland and
Pittsburgh, Penn., respectively. They were married in Tennessee,  where the
mother died about 1834. The father re-married two years later, and then removed
to where Ozark,  Ark., now stands. In 1853 he went to California, where he
spent about three years, after which he located in  Franklin County, Ark. He
was left an orphan when young, and being bound out to a Quaker in Philadelphia,
learned the shoemaker's trade, which he afterward engaged in extensively. He
was a prominent Mason, and died  near Ozark in 1873. Thomas Webb, the
grandfather, came with a brother to the United States at an early day.  The
maternal grandfather was of Irish origin, the name formerly having been
McDugal, but it was changed by  the Pennsylvania Legislature. Thomas J. Webb
passed his boyhood in Nashville, Tenn., and when fifteen  accompanied his
father to Arkansas. In 1846 he enlisted in the Mexican War for twelve months,
and served in Company D, Arkansas Cavalry, under Gen. Taylor. He was captured
previous to the battle of Buena Vista, and  taken on foot to the City of
Mexico, a distance of 1,000 miles, where he was held a prisoner six months. In
1852  he crossed the plains to California, where he remained until 1883,
engaged in mining and farming. During the  late war he served three years and
one month in Company L, First California Cavalry, being engaged the greater
part of the time in fighting the Indians in Arizona. He had charge of supply
stations several times. After  returning to Arkansas from California he engaged
in cattle trading for some time in Franklin County, but since  1885 has farmed
in Sebastian County. By the exercise of industry and economy Mr. Webb has
become a well- to-do man, and in partnership with his brother he owns 1,200
acres of choice land in this county. He is  devotedly fond of reading, being
well-informed on all current topics, and his library contains a number of good
works by well-known authors.