* * * TRIBUTE TO MRS. MARY WEBB * * *I attended the funeral of Mrs. Mary Webb yesterday at Terrell. She was one of the pioneer women of that city. No woman was ever more highly respected and beloved in that community. Such was her holy and upright life that she could go into a crowd of the roughest men that ever assembled in that city and be treated with reverence and motherly respect. Each man recognized the influence of her goodly life and would gracefully bow in her presence. She was left a widow when her children were very young. They have grown to manhood and womanhood under her watchful care and supervision and she could at any time have pointed to them and said, "These are my jewels." They will be stars in her corwn of everlasting joy. I saw at her funeral the representation of many families in whose homes I knew Mrs. Webb had been a ministering angel. In their suffering and sorrow she alleviated their pains and wiped away their tears. In that mighty day that is to come when the earth and the sea shall give up their dead, there will be many poor people who will point to her and say, "When I was sick ye visited me, when I was hungry, you gave me bread; when I and my little ones were shivering in the wintry blast, you brought me clothing; when the last flickering fires upon my hearthstone were rapidly fading away, you brought me wood." Thus she exemplified in her life the teaching of our common religion. At the good old age of about 77 years she has passed away, leaving behind her a record her children and friends are proud of. She lived in the stormy period of the Civil War. She experienced many of the hardships and knew what it meant to be turned out of home and deprived of the necessaries of life by bands of ruthless soldiers. She was as true to the Confederate cause as the magnetic needle is to the pole. To her dying day she honored and loved the Confederate soldiers. Every one of them found in her a true friend. Perhaps she did more for the cause of the old soldiers at Terrell than any other woman. She sympathized with and encouraged them in all their undertakings. The Confederate monument, work upon which has already commenced at Kaufman, met with her hearty approval. She was buried the very day that work commenced. To show the esteem and affection which the old soldiers entertained for her, they came many miles to attend her funeral. They honored her by burying her with military honors--firing three rounds of musketry at her grave. This is a distinction that was never before thus paid to a woman living outside official circles. It was a tribute to her worth as a Southern woman and friend of the man who bared their bosoms to the blasts of battle in the dark and bloody days that tried men's souls. Those floral offerings surpassed anything I ever saw. Some lady's tongue will have to decoribe them; I can not. But they came from loving hearts and friendly hands. They were tokens of love and friendship for a saintly woman who has gone from us forever. Let her memory and influence live on and her body rest in peace. * * * MRS. MARY WEBB * * *Surrounded by the members of her devoted family, who had left nothing undone for her, Mrs. Mary Webb died Saturday night at 11:30 at her residence on West Nash avenue. The death cast a gloom over the entire town, known and beloved so generally as Mrs. Webb had been for so long. Her thoughtfulness to others, her deeds of kindness, so unobtrusively done, and her many acts of charity so quietly performed had endeared her to all and her passing is mourned by the entire town. Characterizing her life was her devotion to the South and to its fortunes. Anything connected with it or with the Confederacy could demand her sympathy and her attention at any times, no matter what demands might be upon her. To its claims she was ever true and to the last remained loyal to the principles advocated by "the lost cause." Mrs. Webb was a native of Mississippi and was born at Jackson, being in her seventy-seventh year at the time of her death. Before her marriage to Albert Lewis Webb, who died in 1878, she was Miss Mary CARLTON of the family to which belonged the poet, Will Carlton, so well known in literature. in 1875 Mrs. Webb moved to Texas, coming to Terrell in 1879 and residing here ever since. In church affiliation she was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The following sons and daughters survive: Mrs. Ada PLUMMER, Terrell; Sidney, L. M. and E. L. WEBB, Bellevue; Percy WEBB, Ft. Worth; Misses Lillian and Cora WEBB, Terrell; Mrs. Maude SMITH, Providence, Rhode Island. There are twenty-one grand children and one great-grand child. The funeral services were held at the home at 10:30 this morning, Rev. T.J. Oliver CURRAN, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd officiating. The house, porches and lawns of the home were filled with those who had come to show the last tribute of respect. Lavish and strikingly beautiful were the floral offerings, showing the sympathy of countless friends Acting as pall bearers were: W. C. MC CORD, G. C. KERR, A. E. DYNE, R. H. ROWELL, A. N. ANDREWS, R. D. MC AFEE, J. B. ANTHONY, F. L. IRWIN, AND Dr. H. P. RUDELL. the latter of Dallas. In accordance with a wish frequently expressed, the body was dressed in Confederate gray and wrapped in the Stars and Bars. In full uniform, the members of the J.E.B. Stuart Camp of Confederate Veterans attended in a body and acted as an escort to Oakland cemetery. With all of the honors the veterans could give, the remains were laid to rest and the new made mound hidden in a wilderness of flowers. Among those here from a distance to attend the funeral were: Mrs. John H. REAGAN, widow of the last surviving member of President DAVIS' cabinet, who came from her home in Palestine; Captain and Mrs. Joseph HUFFMASTER, Kaufman; R. J. BROWN, Henrietta; Dr. and Mrs. H. P. RUDDELL, Dallas. A wide circle of friends extend to the sorrowing family their deepest sympathy in their hour of grief. * * * GENERAL WEBB * * *This is an endearing tearm in distinction of the late Mrs. Mary Webb for her deeds and wonderful devotion for the South and its cause in manifold manifestations for the survivors of the Civil War and their widows, but to the few older citizens of Terrell, who will stop and revert to the past and remember her trials, and struggles of about thirty years ago, the title of General Webb has a deeper and loftier significance in heroic features born of the silent battle of life. More than thirty years ago left alone, practically penniless, a widow she passed through all the besetting temptations and adversities of poverty and has reared her family in honor and purity and she now answers the call of her Maker after a well spent life in duty well performed followed to the last resting place by the tranp, tranp, tranp of the old soldiers, to whose comfort and glory she has given much of her late life, but the long battle she fought and won as a good and pure woman, a noble and devoted mother, in single handed combat and brought to maturity in purity her girls and her boys to an honorable manhood, is the bright inner help that gives shining luster and glory to the outer circle of noble deeds she has performed for the dead and living heroes, patriots of the lost cause. Seeing the martial display at her funeral I pondered and asked myself is this to her General Webb for public acts awarded and do I alone see and read between the lines and alone hear only that sweeter minor chord her life gives forth which will touch the heart of man and reach the ear of him who measures justice long before the martial sounds are heard. I saw that silent fight I know where-of I speak. ---T.B. Greathouse |