52 Ancestors-Week #2-Zephaniah Theron Webb

For week number two I am writing about my maternal great great grandfather.  I have a good bit of unsubstantiated information that I am trying to verify, but so far, what I have does seem to line up well with the records that I have been able to locate.  As always, it is a work in progress.

Zephaniah Theron Webb was born 14 October 1826 in Tennessee and died 21 March 1906[i] in Pope County, Arkansas.  He was the son of George Washington Webb and Martha Gant.[ii] 

Before the Civil War, he was a captain in Company A, 15^th Regiment Arkansas Militia.  At the start of the war, the militias were disbanded and Zephaniah along with many militia members quickly enlisted in volunteer companies.[iii]

He served as a private in the Company H of the 35^th Regiment, Arkansas Infantry.  His 25 February muster roll lists him as ‘absent-sick’.  In his pension application of 25 March 1905 he states that he “had typhoid fever while in actual serviced and it caused me to partially loose (sic) my eyesight in my right eye.  I was not able to go back to my command.”[iv]

At some point Zephaniah moved from Tennessee to Pope County Arkansas and married his first cousin Clementine Webb on 23 November 1856.[v]

Between 1860 and 1870, according to the census, Zephaniah’s real estate value and personal property were reduced by nearly half. Without more information it is difficult to say what the cause of this was.  It is possible it was a result of the Civil War, but other economic factors could have contributed as well. In 1860 they were recently married and were living in their first home together.  By 1870 they had added four children.  He was listed as a farmer in both the 1860 and 1870 census.

They had a total of 6 children (Isabe Bell, Horatia, Mary, George Toller, Huston N., Charley J.). 

After the death of Clementine in 1890, Zephaniah went to live with his son Charley J. (my great grandfather) and his family also in Pope County, Arkansas.  According to a letter from a great aunt, they moved to Oklahoma around 1898 for a year but returned to Arkansas after the crop they planted failed.[vi]  So far, I have been unable to find any corroborating evidence for this.

Zephaniah died on 21 March 1906.

Both Zephaniah and Clementine are buried in Old Baptist Cemetery, Center Valley, Pope County, Arkansas.  Here is the link to the Find A Grave memorial.

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[i] Findagrave.com, Find A Grave, digital images (http://www.findagrave.com/ : accessed 14 June 2013), photograph, gravestone for Zephaniah T. Webb (1826-1906), Pope County, Arkansas.

[ii] Transcription of family Bible found online.  So far have not located an image  or verification of the data.

[iii] http://www.couchgenweb.com/civilwar/15milhis.html

[iv] Zephaniah T. Webb, Confederate Pension Application, Arkansas History Commission

[v] Pope County, Arkansas, United State Census of 1860 and Marriage Books B & C, December 1849-December 1859.  Capitola Glazner and Bobbie J. McLane.  1967, p. 128.

[vi] Margaret McFadden, Arkansas, to Elizabeth Sample, letter, 31 August 1992, sharing unsourced and uncited genealogical information on Zephaniah Webb and family; Personal Correspondence, 1992; Webb Family, Webb File; privately held by Daniel Sample, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], Stafford, Texas.