Walter Prescott Webb's Formative Years

Noted historian Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963) came with his family to Stephens County at the age of four. Over the next seventeen years, Webb received an education in frontier life that formed the basis of his intellectual development and his theories on the role of the Great Plains in American history. Webb's father, Casner, was a rural schoolteacher and farmer. As he moved to different teaching assignments, the family moved with him. W.P. Webb thus was exposed to the physical geographical variety within the county that was so important to his western thesis. His neighbors were prime sources of frontier lore. Although Webb's public school experiences were infrequent, it was during these formative years in Stephens County that he developed his love of books and his desire to attend college. Also during this time, Webb was contacted by William Hinds of New York, who was to become his benefactor and a great source of encouragement for the young scholar. In 1906 Walter P. Webb received his teaching certificate and spent the next three years as a rural educator. In 1909, at the age of 21, Webb left his home in Stephens County to pursue his college education at the University of Texas in Austin.

Walter Prescott Webb's Formative Years is a historical marker in Breckenridge, Stephens County, dedicated in 1985. It is one of 16 historical markers documented in Stephens County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 65 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.7572, -98.9046 near Breckenridge. The nearest cataloged historic site is Stephens County Courthouse (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include First National Bank Building, Old, Camp Breckenridge, C.S.A., and Gunsolus, Dr. Peter.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5429005711. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.