"A Gentleman of Superior Cultivation and Refinement": Recovering the Biography of Frank J. Webb

African American Review, Summer, 2001 by Eric Gardner

While I have been unable to find any record of Frank J. Webb after 1880--including a death record--we have found some tantalizing hints about his two male children (because of marital renaming and the sexist record-keeping of the period, the female children are more difficult to track). First, a Thomas R. Webb, whose age, race, literacy, birthplace, and mother's birthplace match those of Frank and Mary Webb's son Thomas appears in the 1900 U.S. Census of Galveston, Texas. [17] Working as a delivery clerk, he lodged with a white widow who taught school, E[lizabeth?] Mabson, and her three children. Tracing Thomas back becomes difficult because of the severe damage, bordering on complete destruction, of much of the 1890 U.S. Census; and I have not yet found a record of him after 1900.

Second, both Lapsansky (37) and Penelope Bullock (98) note the two contributions in the A.M.E. Church Review (sometimes titled the A.M.E. Christian Review), the well-established magazine voice of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in the 1890s by a "Frank J. Webb, Jr." There is some chance that this is the same Frank Webb who is listed as a doctor renting a house in the 1900 U.S. Census of Washington, D.C. This Frank Webb's birthdate, race, and literacy match those of Frank R. Webb, although his birthplace is listed as Washington, and his parents' birthplaces are listed as Maryland. Given the complex position of West Indians in the District, this Frank Webb could have consciously given himself a different birthplace and nationality--claiming to have been born a citizen of the U.S. [18] Whether or not "Frank J. Webb, Jr.," Dr. Frank Webb, and Frank R. Webb were the same person remains to be proven.

The other trace of Frank R. Webb is equally fascinating. In the copy of The Christian Slave now owned by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (full provenance unknown), three ownership markings appear--a signed dedication to the first Mary Webb from Harriet Beecher Stowe, two signatures of M. R. R. Webb, along with the words "particular property," and, very faintly on the rear pastedown, a signature of Frank Rodgers Webb. I have yet to find how Frank J. Webb transmitted this legacy of his first wife to the children of his second, and we are, of course, only now beginning to receive his own complex legacy as we finally delve into his writing and his life.

Eric Gardner teaches American literature and culture, writing, and multimedia studies at Saginaw Valley State University. A University of Illinois Ph.D., he has published essays on Harriet Wilson and Mary Webb, and is doing further research on the Webbs. Gardner wishes to thank Jodie Gardner for her tireless support, and Thomas Zantow, Margaret Mair, Jacqueline McKiernan, Phillip Lapsansky, Nina Baym, and the anonymous readers of this manuscript at African American Review for their generous assistance. The title quote is drawn from Harriet Beecher Stowe's letter of May 24, 1856, to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Baines, and is quoted courtesy of the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.