 William Henry Webb
Family  William
Henry Webb and his
brother, Cyrus, are shown on the rolls
for the Arizona Brigade.
They are also listed as having indigent
families in Grayson County.
William Henry Webb is my great-grandfather. The Webb family first came to Grayson County around 1857, this consisting of my great-great-grandmother Sarah, my great-grandfather William Henry, a brother Statia and an older sister Ollie. At some point another brother Cyrus joined them. My great-grandfather William Henry Webb met and married Jamima Spearman and they had four children, Sarah Elizabeth, Guilford, Ella and Annie. Jamima Spearman Webb died in 1875 in Grayson County. My great-grandfather then met and married my great-grandmother, a widow, by the name of Paralee Jane Allsup Burks. Her first husband died in Grayson County in 1871. She had a son by this marriage, J. Will Burks, born in Grayson County. William Henry Webb and Paralee Jane Webb then moved to Coleman County, Texas with the brother Cyrus and both of their families. All subsequent six Webb children were born in Coleman County; one of those was my grandmother, May Webb, who married my grandfather Jasper Miller Brown; my father Winston Perry Brown was the youngest of eight children of this union. I was the oldest of two children born to my father and mother Juanita C. Cozby.   Guilford p. Webb son of William Henry Web & Paralee Jane Allsup Burks Sherman Democrat There
is perhaps no man in Grayson
County, or in North Texas, who has a more
intimate knowledge, gained both from
observation and from actual experience, of the
development in road building
activities than has Judge Guilford P. Webb of
Sherman, chairman of the Grayson
County Good Roads Committee and leader in the
campaign for the county-wide road
bond issue, passed on by voters of Grayson
county on July 16. Judge Webb has
been a pioneer in this work and has taken an
active part in every movement in
the city and in the county as a whole designed
to achieve more and better road
facilities. In the
early days, when snake
fences and roads that were nothing more than
enlarged trails were the vogue,
Judge Webb was Judge
Webb was active in the
campaign which led to the creation of the
Sherman special road district and the
issuance of bonds for the building of the roads,
in 1911; he took active part
in the county-wide campaign for a $900,000 bond
issue in 1915; led the county
campaign of two years ago, and it has been his
genius for organization and
effort and the proper marshaling of facts and
arguments which contributed in
large measure to the convincing presentations
made by speakers in the campaign
for the county-wide road bonds which ended
Saturday. Guilford
P. Webb was born March 7,
1861, at Mantau, Collin County, Texas, the son
of W. H. and Jemima Webb. He was
one of four children, all of whom are living,
and of which he was the only boy.
His father was a native of Missouri, who
emigrated to Texas in 1857. His mother
was a native of Tennessee, who had made her home
in Texas since 1852. His
father was a veteran of the war between the
states, serving in the Confederate
army with Captain Baker's Company, in a regiment
commanded by Colonel Fitzhugh.
He served throughout that conflict, taking part
in many of the important
engagements, and was never wounded, although on
one occasion a musket ball
passed through his beard. Following the close of
the war, Mr. Webb returned to
Texas, and located in Coleman County, where he
engaged in farming until his
death in September 1913. Mrs. Webb passed away
in 1874. In
1885, Judge Webb was married to
Miss Eugenia Brooks, who died in 1896. He was
married the second time to Miss
Ida Texana Brooks. He has one child, a son,
Spearman Webb, who is associated
with him in the practice of law at Sherman,
under the firm name of Webb &
Webb. Graduating
from Savoy College in
1883, Judge Webb entered the office of J. D.
Woods at Sherman as a law student
and was admitted to the bar in April, 1889. In
his chosen profession, he has
taken high rank as a leader among the attorneys
of this section. He is the
president of the Grayson County Bar Association,
and is a member of the
American and Texas State Bar Associations. In
politics, Judge Webb is a
long-long democrat. During the four years of his
residence in Coleman County,
from 1890 to 1894, he took a prominent part in
the councils of his party and
was chairman of the county executive committee.
He was city attorney of Sherman
from 1896 to 1900 and county judge from 1903 to
1906. At present he is a member
of the state democratic executive committee of
Texas. In
religious affiliation, Judge
Webb is one of the leading members of the
Central Christian church of Sherman. He has
taken high rank in the
Masonic fraternity, including the Knight Templar
degree, and for eight years
was Eminent Commander of the Indivisible Friends
Commandery, No. 13. In
civic affairs, Judge Webb has
been active in the development and promotion of
juvenile courts and schools. He
is a former director of the Sherman Y. M. C. A.,
and was one of the founders
and the first president of the Red River Valley
Historical Association. Like all men of
affairs who
recognize the value of diversion, Judge Webb
has his hobbies, the principal one
of which is Botany, into the mysteries and
beauties of which he delves in his
spare moments. As a means of recreation and
physical invigoration,
he prefers the outdoor sport of hunting.  HON.
GUILFORD P. WEBB, county judge of Grayson
County in his second term,
for the past fifteen years a
representative of the legal profession,
most of the time a successful lawyer, in
Grayson County is a native of
son of the Lone Star State and was born at
Mantua, Collin County, March
7, 1861.
His parents were W. H. Webb and Jamima Spearman Webb, and his father is a Missourian by birth and is now a resident of Coleman County, this state. He served throughout the Civil War as a Confederate soldier, and his lifelong occupation has been farming and stock-raising, in which he is still engaged. Judge Webb's mother was born in Tennessee, and came to Texas in 1854, being married to W. H. Webb in Grayson County, where for several years previous she had been engaged in teaching. She died at the old home in this county in 1874, and of her family of children, four are still living, Guilford being the only son. Judge Webb was reared to manhood on the paternal farm in Grayson County, where he also gained his preliminary education. He was educated at Savoy College in Fannin County, having completed his education from that well-known institution in 1883, and then for the following five years was engaged in teaching school. With a berth in the legal profession as the goal of his ambition, he became a law student under the tutorship of Captain Jim Woods, the well-known jurist, and was admitted to the bar in 1889. Sin that year his time and talents have been fully drawn upon either in private practice or in the duties of public office. The first four years of his practice were passed in western Texas, and since then, he has had his office in Sherman. During his career as a teacher in this county, he was appointed the first superintendent of instruction in Grayson County, just after the adoption of the law authorizing that office. In 1896 he was elected city attorney of Sherman, and filled that office for four years. In 1902 he became candidate for the county judgeship and was chosen that year and re-elected in 1904, this being an office for which his broad experience with men and his judicial mind well fit him. Judge Webb had been interested in practical and theoretical politics ever since attaining manhood, and for the greater part of his active career has been a worker for the cause of good government and progressive local and national policies. While a resident of Coleman County he served as county chairman for the executive committee, and in that capacity and as a staunch believer in conservative Democracy, he assisted in defeating the strong Populistic movement in western Texas. For a number of years he has been a regular campaign speaker for Democracy in state and national politics and his tact, his personality, his sincere convictions and his persuasive ability make him both popular and influential in this cause. Judge Webb is a member of the Masonic fraternity, is affiliated also with the Woodsmen of the World and the ancient order of United Workmen, and his family are members of the Christian church. He has been married twice. In 1885 he married Miss Eugenia Brooks, who died in 1896, leaving three children, Vida, Spearman and Charles, the last named having died in February 1904. Judge Webb married his present estimable wife in 1897. She was Miss Ida T. Brooks, a sister of his first wife. Source: Paddock, B. B. History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906 Photograph by Wear  Biography Index Susan Hawkins ©2025 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
