Henry Walter Webb

The career of H. Walter Webb was an illustration of a fine devotion to duty, whose inspiration was not necessity, but a manly ambition to follow the American ideal of doing something well and to serve one’s day and generation to the utmost of one’s powers. In this he succeeded passing well, but he laid down his life in the work and fell like a soldier at his post. He was a younger son of Gen. James Watson Webb, whose family has been a notable one in this city, and was educated at Columbia College in the School of Mines and at its Law School. After several years of practice he entered the Vanderbilt railroad service at first as Vice-President of the Wagner Palace Car Company, and had his first opportunity to display the ability of the sort which makes great railroad men. It was quickly recognized, and his promotion for merit was rapid. As a Vice-President of the Central Road during the absence of his superior officers, the whole responsibility of resisting a strike of 5,000 men, inaugurated by the Knights of Labor on the system in 1890, fell upon his shoulders, when he had been but six months in the service, and was only 38 years old. His ability and courage were equal to the occasion. His foresight had provided for the emergency, and although the struggle was fierce and the strain was tense, before his adversaries realized it he broke the backbone of the strike and his fight was won. It told severely, however, on his highly strung nervous organization, and although he discharged his duties afterwards with an energy and thoroughness that increased his reputation, he was compelled for many years to make a desperate struggle for life, which he did with a tenacity and hopefulness that never failed, but his vital forces succumbed at last, and he passed away in the prime of his years, a martyr to his work.

He was a refined, scholarly man, a lover of choice books, of which he had a rare collection, happy in his domestic circle, and was cherished by a large circle of friends for his genial, companionable ways and his manly, generous nature.

Henry E. Howland
1901 Century Association Yearbook