Caught in the Webb: Understanding George W. Webb

George W. Webb 

 I think George Washington Webb is my most perplexing ancestor. His daughter is my mom’s paternal grandmother Mary Melissia Webb-Eurick-Smith. Sadly very little is known about George. It was said that he wasn’t a very loyal husband and that the family had very little. There are newspaper clippings that I have found that tell of his run-ins with the law, I tried not to look at George as a “villain” in my tree. Over the years some things have started to make since and I look at his past not as an excuse but a reason for the choices that he made.

The Webb family. George and Lou with children Kenneth and Harrison (in back) Hazel (girl on left), Mary (girl on right),
George E., Lloyd and and Virgil (front row l-r.) 

George died in Elwood, Indiana on the 24^th of November 1938, he was 65. He left behind eight children. His wife Georgia Lucinda “Lou” Clark-Webb, had passed in 1933. Finding George’s death certificate I see his parents are listed as William Webb and Lucida Penwell. The informant was George’s son Harrison Webb.

Looking to George and Lou’s marriage record we find that her parents are William H. Clark and Sarah E. Moore.  George’s mother is listed as Lucinda WEBB, and the father is listed as “unknown” these questions being answered by George himself.

I needed to find the earliest record on George that I could. He was born 8^th of May 1873 (some say 1876) near Perkinsville, Indiana. I found the 1880 census listing a “5” year-old George as the grandson of Anaias and Jemima Webb. Their sons Jacob age 25 and William age 23. Could this William be the same William listed as the father? I doubt it… Next door to the Webb household is the Penwell family. Alfred and Lucinda with their young son Jerome age 2. Lucinda Penwell, this must be the Lucinda Penwell listed as the mother on George’s death record (filled out by George’s son).

I looked for the marriage record of an Alfred Penwell. He married Lucinda Webb. My belief is that George was born out-of-wedlock to Lucinda Webb. She later married Alfred Penwell, giving Harrison an “easy out” by listing the mother as “Lucinda Penwell” and the making up a first name for the father, and giving him the “Webb” name.   

I know from family accounts and few documents that George had two half-brothers, Jerome and Roy, either living in Elwood or the Elwood area.  Neither Penwell brother had children of their own, leaving dead-ends on their part. In doing research I found that Alfred and Lucinda had two other sons. One whose name is unknown - all I know is that at the age of 2 he fell into his Uncle William Webb’s well, they were able to save him. Lucinda died having the fourth Penwell child, a son only known as A. M. Penwell in May of 1891.

 

My knowledge of George’s short life after the death of his wife Lou, was little until I met my Step-father’s great-uncle and great-aunt. Aunt Martha was the best friend to George’s daughter Mary’s daughters. She knew George and thought he was, “A nice old man.” She and her friends even hatched a plan to get George married to Martha’s grandma, it didn’t work out. I did however find another marriage for George, an unknown marriage that shocked many people. See, his daughter Mary was first married to Robert L. Eurick and had three daughters. Roberts’ mother Melvina and George married in April 1934, a fact found in the local newspaper.  At some point they divorced.

Melvina L.C.S. (Hollings)Eurick-Webb

I am still trying to sort out George’s past; maybe I will get lucky and find a DNA match on ancestry.com. I have no lead as to who the father of George is, other than he may have been related to a Davis family. Info from a note I found by George’s granddaughter Opal, saying “Grandpa Webb’s 3^rd or 4^th cousin is Frank Davis.”  

My beloved Great-Aunt Opal N.R. (Eurick)Bear- 1929-2007, Thank you for all of the genealogy to left behind.
Photo courtesy of Martha A. (Jackson)Murdock.