Webb, Walter Prescott, 1888-1963

Educator. Historian. Author. Born in 1888 on a farm in Panola County, Texas. Attended University of Texas, receiving his B.A. (1915), M.A. (1920) and Ph. D. (1932). Started teaching at the University of Texas in 1918 and remained on the faculty until his death. Authored "The Great Plains" (1931), "The Texas Rangers" (1935) and "The Handbook of Texas" (1952). Served as director of the Texas State Historical Association, president of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (1954-1955) and of the American Historical Association (1957-1958). Married Jane Elizabeth Oliphant in 1916. She died in 1960. Later married Mrs. Terrell Maverick (widow of Maury Maverick) in 1961. Webb died in 1963.

Historian Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963) was born in rural Panola County, Texas, later moving with his family to a farm near Ranger, Texas. The young Webb showed an early interest in writing and appealed to magazine editor William Ellery Hinds for help. Hinds encouraged Webb, who graduated from Ranger High School and began teaching at a variety of small Texas schools. With Hinds' assistance, Webb enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1915 and married Jane Elizabeth Oliphant in 1916. He was asked to join the History Department faculty at the University of Texas in 1918, concurrently writing his master's thesis on the Texas Rangers and earning a master's degree in 1920.

After an unsuccessful attempt at doctoral work at the University of Chicago, Webb returned to Austin and wrote the seminal work The Great Plains in 1931. The book gained widespread acclaim as a new interpretation of the American West and was largely the basis for the University of Texas awarding Webb a Ph.D. in 1932. From 1939 to 1946 Webb also served as director of the Texas State Historical Association, where he expanded the Southwestern Historical Quarterly and began compiling an encyclopedia of Texas which was eventually published as the Handbook of Texas .

As a professor at the University of Texas, Webb was well-known for his books and engaging lectures, where he argued two seminal theories: the Great Plains thesis and the Great Frontier thesis. Webb asserted in his Great Plains thesis that westward expansion of Europeans across North America stalled briefly at the 98th meridian where the woodlands of the east gave way to the arid plains of the west. Not until technology adapted to the new environment were settlers able to continue the move west, with innovations such as barbed wire, the windmill, and the six-shooter revolver. In 1952 Webb published The Great Frontier to codify his theory of the same name. Webb argued that the great frontier discovered by Columbus and subsequently explored by countless adventurers and settlers provided the stimulus for the rise of wealth, capitalism, and democracy. Then as the lands were settled and the frontier disappeared (circa 1900), increasing stress on the land triggered the economic and environmental problems of the 20th century.

Webb published The Texas Rangers in 1935, Divide We Stand: The Crisis of a Frontierless Democracy in 1927, More Water for Texas in 1954, and a collection of essays titled An Honest Preface and Other Essays in 1959. His wife Jane passed away in 1960 and in 1961 Webb married Terrell (Dobbs) Maverick (widow of F. Maury Maverick). Webb's life ended abruptly in an automobile accident near Austin on March 8, 1963, and he is buried at the State Cemetery in Austin.

Historian,

taught at The University of Texas (1918-1963), directed the Texas State Historical Association (1939-1946), and authored numerous books and articles on the history of Texas and the West.