History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, profusely illustrated with portraits of early pioneers, rare pictures and scenes of olden times, and portraits of representative citizens of today, [Vol. 2]

BIOGRAPHIES OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS

WILLIAM L. WEBBER
William L. Webber, who was so prominently identified with the development of the resources of the Saginaw Valley, was born at Ogden, Monroe
County, New York, July 19, 1825. His parents were James S. and Phoebe
Smith Webber, of Belfast, Maine, and removed to Ogden in 1824. In 1836
they emigrated to Michigan and settled on a farm in Livingston County.
During his years of boyhood William L. assisted his father in clearing the
land and cultivating the soil, giving his days to hard labor and his evenings
to study. As opportunity offered he attended the district school, and, being
fond of books, supplemented the meagre rudimentary studies of the pioneer
school by close application at home. In 1844-45 he taught a neighboring
school, but in the latter year his mother died and the members of the family
became separated.
At the age of twenty-one Mr. Webber entered the office of Foote &
Mowry, at Milford, Michigan, with the intention of following the profession of medicine, but after two years spent there he decided to take up the
law. In 1848 he opened a select school in Milford, giving his leisure hours
to the study of his newly chosen profession, and was admitted to practice in
1851. After a year of practice at Milford he became convinced that a larger
field for the exercise of his talents was desirable, and to select a location
which promised well for the future he visited the little village of East Saginaw. This place was then coming into notice as a center of lumbering
operations, and he was very favorably impressed with the natural advantages
of the Saginaw Valley.
In January, 1853, he and his father, James S. Webber, drove overland
from Milford to the embryo city on the Saginaw, arriving in the evening
of the second day and putting up for the night at a house on Water Street,
kept by A. Dann, called the "Blackmar House." The next day they began
to look about for building lots, aided by friends, but the prices of business
lots west of the bayou, which crossed the Plank Road (Genesee Avenue) at
about the location of Baum Street, were very high, ranging from one hundred to eight hundred dollars. Crossing the bayou bridge they soon met
Norman L. Little, and purchased from him the entire block bounded by the
Plank Road, Jefferson and German Streets, for six hundred dollars. Mr.
Little remarked that "they are beautiful lots and they have been reserved
lots, but I have heard of you and your son and want just such buyers."
At this time there were only two houses east of the bayou, one of which
had been built by George Oliver on Lapeer Street, and the other by Gustav
Riegel on the corner of German and Warren Streets. There were a few
board shanties to be seen here and there, but the ground was just as it
had been left after the timber was cut and burned, no streets laid out,
narrow paths winding among brush heaps and mud holes serving as highways, while fire-weeds, thistles, mullens, and stumps of trees were everywhere encountered. At the corner of Plank Road and Jefferson Street,
James S. Webber built his first residence here, with stumps all around, and
late in September, 1853, it was finished and painted white inside and out.
On October 3, his stock of merchandise having arrived, he opened a retail
store on the north side of Plank Road, near Water Street. Meanwhile William L. had erected a house on the south lots parallel to German Street,
which were purchased by him, and settled down to the practice of the law.
Mr. Webber had been here scarcely six months before he had all the
business he could well attend to, including his duties as insurance agent
and collector of accounts. In June, 1857, he formed a law partnership with
John J. Wheeler, under the firm name of Webber & Wheeler, which continued until December 31, 1860. The following year Mr. Webber became the