Jesse C. Webb

            PROF. JESSE C. WEBB.  Recognized as one of the leading educators of Indian, Prof. Jesse C. Webb, superintendent of the Portland schools, has won distinction in his chosen profession while still in the very prime of  vigorous manhood. He was born on a farm in Johnson County, Indiana, June 12, 1874, a son of John S. and Nancy E. (Welliver) Webb, natives of Johnson County, Indiana and Butler County, Ohio respectively.

            John S. Webb was a farmer by occupation in Shelby County, Indiana, but established himself in Johnson County in 1856, and continued to conduct his farm in Needham Township until 1875, when he moved to Franklin Township. In religious faith he was a Baptist, and a devout church member. A Democrat in politics, his first presidential vote was cast for James Buchanan in 1856.His father, Zachariah Webb, was a son of John and Nancy (Davis) Webb, the latter of who came to Clark County, Indiana, in 1812, and to Shelby County in 1819. Zachariah Webb’s mother, Nancy Davis, was a cousin of Zachary Taylor, inaugurated President of the United States, in 1849. The mother of John Webb, Mrs. Nancy A. (Huff) Webb was born in Xenia, Ohio, and came with her parents, Joseph and Hannah (Finely) Huff, to Shelby County, Indiana, where her father followed the vocation of millwright. He built, prior to 1825, the Old Red Mill in Shelby County, which was converted into a woolen mill and later used for manufacturing flour. Mrs. Hannah (Finley) Huff was a sister of Rev. James B. Finley, a Methodist minister of the early day. Professor Webb is related to the same branch of the Davis family as was the late Jefferson Davis, one-time President of the Confederacy, through his great-grandmother, Mrs. Nancy (Davis) Webb, a daughter of Richard Davis, and a niece of Samuel Davis, the father of Jefferson Davis. The grandfather of Richard and Samuel Davis was David Davis, a noted Presbyterian minister of Virginia, at the time he became the fourth president of Princeton, what is now Princeton University.

            The Webb family line of descent is traced back to royalty in England.

            John S. Webb, father of Professor Webb, died in March, 1907, and his widow, mother of Professor Webb, passed away in March, 1908. They were the parents of twelve children, eight of whom are living: Mrs. Nina B. Branigan, of Canton, Mississippi; Mrs. Helena A. Cave, of Franklin, Indiana; Mrs. Lula E. Hunt of Franklin; Daniel E., also of Franklin; Jesse C.; Samuel J., of Franklin; M.D. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Mrs. Mary E. Clane, of Franklin.

            Professor Webb was graduated from the common schools in 1890, and from the Franklin High School in 1894. Entering Franklin College, he took the regular course, and was graduated therefrom in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and he took his Master’s degree from the same institution in 1901. While he is not a graduate of the University of Chicago, he took considerable work in that institution.

            In 1899 Professor Webb began teaching school in the country, and he followed that with teaching in the high schools, and became superintendent of schools of Johnson County, and again, elected in 1911, serving as such until 1916, when he became city superintendent of schools at Franklin, and at the same time, from 1916 to 1921, he assisted in the department of education in Franklin College. In 1921 he became assistant in the Danville, Indiana, College, department of education; and in 1922 was given the same position in Butler College, Indianapolis, Indiana. However, at the same time, since 1922, he has been city superintendent of schools at Portland. From 1910 to 1913 he served as a member of the Indiana state board of education. Since 1905 he has held a life teacher’s certificate. Professionally he holds membership with the National Superintendents association. A Mason, he ahs been advanced in the order to the Commandery, and belongs to Franklin Commandery No. 23, K.T. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias. In addition to the degrees already mentioned Professor Webb, received that of Master of arts in education from Columbia University in 1919. For some years he has been interested in the work of the Rotary club, and is now a member of the Rotary International. He is a member of the Baptist Church.

            On August 6, 1902, Professor Webb was married to Miss Estelle Jones, of Franklin, a daughter of W.C. and Margaret E. Jones, and great-great-granddaughter of David Forsythe the first. She is a Daughter of the American Revolution, a Tri Delta Delta. Professor and Mrs. Webb have one daughter, Dorothea Welliver, the wife of Wilbur Ward, of Chicago. Mrs. Ward is a graduate of the normal school department of Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, a music supervisor, and accomplished musician, her favorite instrument being the cello.

            For many years Professor Webb has been a valued contributor to the Indiana Journal, Indian Teacher, Journal of Education, Progressive Teacher and the Arts magazine of Palo Alto, California. He is also author of the book Report of Johnson County Schools in 1914. Professor Webb is one of two city superintendents of Indiana chosen for Who’s Who in American Education, published in 1928.

            While county superintendent of schools of Johnson County Professor Webb made a splendid record, and one that his successors have taken for their guide. One of the outstanding features of his work was the establishment, in 1915, of the first Vocational Agricultural schools in the rural districts of Indiana, in Union Township, Johnson County.

            In 1920, when the Rockefeller Foundation Committee, headed by Doctor Bachman of New York City, came to Indiana to make a survey of the state public school conditions, they chose three types of counties as their working field: The first to represent the best conditions in the state; the second to represent the average conditions in the state; and the third to represent the poorest condition in the state. They chose Johnson as the one which represented the best educational conditions in the state. By making this selection they silently paid the highest tribute to Superintendent Webb, who made the county second to none in Indiana by establishing high-typed rural consolidated schools in some of the townships of Johnson County as early as 1905, 1906 and 1907. This was pioneer educational work of a superior type. When Doctor Bachman had surveyed it, he remarked that he had a notion, that in some cases, as much could be accomplished toward progressive education, with the township as a unit, as was possible with the county as a unit –another tribute to the work of Superintendent Webb.

Source: Indiana One Hundred and Fifty Years of American Development. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1931. Volume III, page 86, 87.