Walter Prescott Webb's Formative Years
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QuesterMark
N 32° 45.336 W 098° 54.244
14S E 508986 N 3624197
This marker stands on the southeast corner of the Stephens County Courthouse Square. It recounts part of the biography of historian Walter Prescott Webb.
Waymark Code: WM3509
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/10/2008
Views: 21
Texas Historical Commission Atlas data:
Index Entry: Webb, Walter Prescott, Formative Years
Address: US 180, on Courthouse Lawn
City: Breckenridge
County: Stephens
Subject Codes: ED; WR
Year Marker Erected: 1985
Designations: na
Marker Location: SE corner courthouse square, US 180, Breckenridge
Marker Size: 27" x 42"
Repairs Completed: Refinish before it gets worse.
Marker Number: 5711
Marker Text:
Noted historian Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963) came with his family to Stephens County at the age of four. Over the next seventeen years, Webb received an education in frontier life that formed the basis of his intellectual development and his theories on the role of the Great Plains in American history.
Webb's father, Casner, was a rural schoolteacher and farmer. As he moved to different teaching assignments, the family moved with him. W.P. Webb thus was exposed to the physical geographical variety within the county that was so important to his western thesis. His neighbors were prime sources of frontier lore.
Although Webb's public school experiences were infrequent, it was during these formative years in Stephens County that he developed his love of books and his desire to attend college. Also during this time, Webb was contacted by William Hinds of New York, who was to become his benefactor and a great source of encouragement for the young scholar.
In 1906 Walter P. Webb received his teaching certificate and spent the next three years as a rural educator. In 1909, at the age of 21, Webb left his home in Stephens County to pursue his college education at the University of Texas in Austin. (1985)
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