Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/432

402 vanced to the grade of commander, 25 July, 1866. j He commanded the double-turreted monitor " Ter- ror" in 1870-'l, in which he went to Havana under | great difficulties, owing to defective boilers, and arrived in season on the occasion when the Spanish students were executed by order of the govern- ment. During the excitement and threatened war with Spain owing to the "Virginius" affair, he was selected to command the sea-going iron-clad " Dic- tator," then one of the most formidable vessels of the navy, in which he was for some time the senior officer of the forces in the harbor of Havana. He remained in command of the " Dictator " until May, 1877. He was commissioned captain, 8 Aug., 1876, was equipment-officer at the Norfolk navy-yard in 1879-'80, and captain of the yard in 1880-'!. He commanded the steam sloop " Brooklyn," on the South Atlantic station, in 1881-4. Hevas a mem- ber of the naval examining and retiring board in 1885-'6, was promoted to commodore, 7 Oct., 1886, and is now president of the retiring-board.

WEBB, Charles, soldier, b. in Stamford, Conn., 13 Feb., 1724; d. after 1794. He was a member of the Connecticut legislature in 1758, and was re- chosen twenty-three times. He served in the French war, and attained the rank of captain in 1760, was sent by congress, in May, 1775, on a tour of inspection to Ticonderoga, and became colonel of the 19th regiment in July, 1775. He participated in the battles of Long Island, 27 Aug., 1776, White Plains, 28 Oct., 1776, and Whitemarsh, 5 Dec, 1777, in which his regiment suffered severe- ly. He retired from the service in June, 1778.

WEBB, Charles Henry, author, b. in Rouse's Point, Clinton co., N. Y., 24 Jan., 1834. He re- ceived his preliminary education in his native place. In early youth he ran away to sea, was ab- sent three years, and on his return went to Illinois, to which state his parents had removed in the mean time. He was editorially connected with the New York "Times" in 1860-3 and with the San Francisco " Bulletin " in 1863-'4, and then edited " The Californian," a weekly, which he left in 1866. He had been engaged in business on the banks of Mississippi river from 1856 till 1860, dealt subse- quently in wheat in Chicago, and at a later period was a banker and broker in Wall street. New York. In 1868 he invented and patented " Webb's adder," an adding-machine which was placed upon the market in that year ; and in 1874 he invented, pat- ented, and manufactured a cartridge-loading ma- chine, the utility of which was recognized by the manufacturers of fire-arms and others. Mr. Webb is now engaged in constructing an improved add- er. He has published " Liffith Lank, or Lunacy," a travesty of Charles Reade's " Griffith Gaunt " (New York, 1867) ; " St. Twel'mo, or the Cunei- form Cyclopedist of Chattanooga," a travesty of Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson's " St. Elmo " (1868) ; "John Paul's Book" (Hartford, 1874); "The Wickedest Woman in New York" (New York, 1875); "Parodies, Prose, and Verse " (1876); and " Sea- Weed and what we seed : my Vacation at Long Branch and Saratoga " (1876). In San Fran- cisco he brought out two plays, " Our Friend from Victoria" (1865), and " Ar'rah-na-Poke," a bur- lesque of Dion Boucicault's " Arrah-na-Pogue " (1865). He edited, under the name of " John Paul," " The Celebrated Jumping Frog."

WEBB, George James, musician, b. near Salis- bury, Wiltshire, England, 24 June, 1803 ; d. in Or- ange, N. J., 7 Oct., 1887. He studied music under Alexander Lucas in Salisbury, and became organ- ist of the church at Falmouth. In 1830 he came to the United States, settling in Boston. He be- came well known as an organist and teacher, and was the friend and associate of Lowell Mason. When the Boston academy of music was founded, in 1833, he and Mason were appointed as musical directors. He also held office in the Handel and Haydn society, and other associations. In 1871 he, resided in Orange, N. J., and his time after this was devoted principally to teaching his new meth- od for treating the voice. He wrote, with Chester G. Allen, " Voice-Culture " (New York, 1871 ; re- vised ed., 1884), and edited collections of vocal music, most of them jointly with Lowell Mason.

WEBB, James, Jurist, b. in Georgia in 1792 ; d. in Goliad, Tex., 1 Nov., 1856. He was educated at William and Mary college, studied law, and, re- moving to Georgia, practised his profession for a few years, after which he was made judge of the supreme court. While filling this office he was appointed U. S. district judge in the territory of Florida, which post he held for many years, when he resigned. In 1839 he removed to the republic of Texas, and was successively attorney-general and secretary of state under the administration of Presi- dent Mirabeau B. Lamar. He served one term in the Texas senate, and after the annexation was re- porter of the decisions of the supreme court, and secretary of state. At the time of his death he was judge of the 14th judicial district. With Thomas II. Duval he published "Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas, 1846-8" (3 vols., Galveston. 1848-'51).

WEBB, John Russell, educator, b. in Brown- ville, Jefferson co., N. Y., 6 Aug.. 1824 ; d. in Ben- ton Harbor, Berrien co., Mich., 10 Sept., 1887. He was graduated at the New York state normal school at Albany among the first students in 1846. While still a pupil of David P. Page, he conceived the idea of teaching children to read by familiariz- ing them at once with the complete forms of words, without first compelling them to learn the letters of the alphabet. Soon after leaving school, and while teaching, he published a book to exemplify this method. He taught with success, went to In- dianapolis in 1851, and soon afterward relinquished professional work on account of failing health, and settled in Minneapolis, Minn., removing in 1861 to Michigan. He published " John's First Book " (Wa- tertown, N. Y., 1846) and " Webb's Word Method," in which he expounded his system cf instruction (Detroit, 1864; revised ed., New York, 1885). be- sides a series of readers emhodving the method.

WEBB, Samuel Blatchley, soldier, b. in Wethersfield, Conn., 15 Dec., 1753; d. in Claverack, N. Y., 3 Dec., 1807. He was descended from Richard Webb, of Gloucestershire, England, who was made a freeman of Boston in 1632, and accompanied the Rev. Thomas Hooker in the settlement of Hartford, Conn., in 1635. He was a step-son and private secretary to Silas Deane, and took part at an early age in the movements that preceded the Revolution. In command of a company of light infantry he left Wethersfield for Boston on hearing of the battle of Lexington, participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was wounded, and was commended in general orders for gallantry. A letter that he wrote to his step-father describing that battle is now possessed by the Connecticut historical society at Hartford. He was soon afterward appointed aide to Gen. Israel Putnam, and on 21 June, 1776, was made private secretary and aide-de-camp to Washington, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He wrote the order for promulgating the Declaration of Independence in New York city, 9 July, 1776, and was associated with Col. Joseph Reed a few days later in refusing to receive a