William Robert Webb, also known as Sawney Webb, was an educator and United States senator.
Background
William Robert Webb was born near Mount Tirzah, in Person County, N. C. , the fifth son of Alexander Smith and Cornelia Adeline (Stanford) Webb, and a grandson of Richard Stanford, congressman from North Carolina. As a child he was given the nickname of "Sawney, " which stuck to him through life.
Education
His education began in a school conducted by his sixteen-year-old sister, and was continued in the Bingham School at Oaks, N. C. He matriculated at the University of North Carolina in 1860, but he left college in April of the following year to enlist as private in Company H, 15th North Carolina Volunteers.
Career
At the battle of Malvern Hill, Va. , he was shot three times, receiving a wound in one of his arms that troubled him throughout life. Immediately after the battle he was elected first lieutenant of his company. While recovering from his wounds he reëntered the University of North Carolina but returned to the army early in 1864 as adjutant of Company K, 2nd North Carolina Cavalry. During the Virginia campaign he fought in almost every battle until, three days before Appomattox, he was captured. He was imprisoned first at the Battery, then at Hart's Island, N. Y. On one occasion he escaped, in uniform, and spent a day unmolested sightseeing in New York, but voluntarily returned to prison that night. After his release he went back to Oaks, N. C. For four years (1866 - 70) he taught at Horner School, Oxford, N. C. , and during that period he completed by correspondence and examination - under the liberal conditions allowed to Confederate soldiers - his work for the degrees of A. B. (1867) and A. M. (1868) at the University of North Carolina. Disgusted with "Carpetbag" and Reconstruction government, he left North Carolina in 1870 for the quieter state of Tennessee, and founded Webb School at Culleoka. Within two weeks the trustees, aghast when he allowed pupils to study out-of-doors, demanded stricter discipline, but Webb refused to "imprison innocent children" and continued his policy of freedom. His, he claimed, was the first "strictly preparatory school" west of the Alleghanies; all others, he said in a speech delivered at Peabody College, January 29, 1923, regardless of faculty or curriculum, were denominated colleges. He seldom advertised, and printed only a small descriptive circular about the school. He taught only Latin, Greek, mathematics, and English, and used no English grammar. In 1873 his brother, John M. Webb, whom he later described as "the greatest scholar I have ever seen, " joined the faculty. In 1886, when local merchants refused not to sell whiskey to his boys, he moved the school to Bellbuckle, Tenn. The two brothers had $12, 000, of which $2, 200 went into buildings and $8, 000 into books. Webb was an ardent prohibitionist and a member (1913 - 26) of the national board of trustees of the Anti-Saloon League of America. In 1896 he campaigned as a Gold Democrat, and served as delegate to the Democratic convention that nominated Palmer and Buckner for president and vice-president respectively. In January 1913 Webb was unanimously elected by the state Senate to fill the unexpired term of the late Senator Robert Love Taylor, Newell Sanders, Republican, having previously been appointed by Gov. Ben W. Hooper. As senator he served from January 24 to March 3, 1913, introducing a bill to prohibit desecration of the flag, and making one notable speech in favor of the Webb-Kenyon Bill (named for Representative E. Y. Webb of North Carolina), which prohibited the shipment of liquor into dry states. He served three times as a lay member of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He died at Bellbuckle, Tenn. , survived by his wife, four sons, and four daughters.
Achievements
Personality
He was short and stocky, with gray beard and hair; he wore a black coat that usually had the third buttonhole attached to the second button, and a black string tie that was invariably under his left ear. His maxims, like his school, were famous; on his deathbed he sent a characteristic message: "Give the boys my love, and tell them to lead a larger life and dont' forget -never do anything that you have to hide. "
Connections
On April 23, 1873, he married Emma Clary of Unionville, Tenn.