Webber, Thomson R.

Born: 1807-10-06 Shelby County, Kentucky

Died: 1881-12-14 Urbana, Illinois

Flourished: 1833-1874 Urbana, Illinois

Thomson R. Webber was a teacher, merchant, postmaster, public servant, farmer, and Democrat. He taught school in Kentucky before moving to Illinois in 1832. He settled in Urbana, where he was a merchant before receiving appointment as the town's first postmaster in 1836, a position he held for fifteen years. In June 1838, he married Anna B. Carson, with whom he had at least three children. He served in a variety of Champaign County offices over the course of his life: clerk of the county court (1833-1853), clerk of the Champaign County Circuit Court (1833-1846), and master in chancery for the circuit court (1834-1874). He also represented Champaign County at the 1847 and 1862 Illinois Constitutional Conventions. In 1850, he owned $2,000 in real estate. By 1860, he was working as a farmer, in addition to still working as master of chancery for the circuit court, and his financial security had increased to the point that he owned more than $8,500 in real and personal property.

Arthur Charles Cole, ed., The Constitutional Debates of 1847, vol. 14 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Constitutional Series (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1919), 2:981; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Champaign County, ed. by Joseph O. Cunningham (Chicago: Munsell, 1905), 2:1050; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1832-1844, 12B:616, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Champaign County, 12 June 1838, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 96; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Urbana, Champaign County, IL, 605.