Webster was born on June 24, 1828, in
Watertown, Connecticut, the son of George Butler Webster and Eliza Jane Noys. He was a descendant of Connecticut colonial governor
John Webster through his father's side. Webster studied at the
Lancasterian School in
New Haven under John E. Lovel. He then moved to
Newport, Kentucky, and studied law in his uncle Francis M. Webster's law firm Webster & Root. In 1860, Webster was elected to the
Kentucky Legislature as a Union
Democrat, representing Campbell County. In 1861, he was the deciding vote against neutrality, 96–97, which kept Kentucky in the
Union during the
American Civil War. In honor of the vote, a salute of 97 guns was fired from
New York City Hall Park. He was also the deciding vote to elect
Garret Davis to the
United States Senate from Kentucky.
President Lincoln then appointed and commissioned him assistant quartermaster in the
Union Army with the rank of captain. He became major and lieutenant-colonel by brevet in December 1865. He was then brevetted colonel in February 1866. He served in the field in Kentucky with Generals
Lew Wallace,
Grant, and Goodloe. He was also in charge of the post in
Covington and
Cincinnati. When the Confederates were moving in on Covington and
General Burnside needed supplies to defend the state, Webster provided Burnside's army with $500,000 worth of rations and clothing while the army was on the move. He handled a total of 40 million dollars of government and property during the war. He declined an offer of commission in the regular army and was honorably discharged in October 1866. After the war, he moved to
New York City and practiced law there.
1891,
1892 (when he introduced bills that appropriated three million dollars for repaving the streets establish a pumping station, abolished the aqueduct commission, authorized the
New York Central to build a
bridge above the
Harlem River, and authorized the consolidation of all street railways in New York City), and
1893 (when, as chairman of the Committee on Affairs of Cities, introduced a number of bills, including to enlarge the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
Museum of Natural History, abolish the power of dock commissioners to issue bonds, keep New York City's water supply pure, provide for the
consolidation of New York City and Brooklyn, remove New York City Hall from City Hall Park, establish a speedway along the Harlem River, settle wrongful assessments, remove the reservoir in
Bryant Park, and appropriate $150,000 to convert
Castle Garden into an aquarium. In the Assembly, he passed a law that gave women the right to make a will without the knowledge or consent of the husband as well as an act that made the mother and father joint guardians of minor children instead of just the father. Webster became a member of the
New York State Bar Association in 1889. He was a corporate member of the
Knights Templar and a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic and the
Loyal Legion. He was also a member of the
New York Press Club, publisher of a
Harlem newspaper, and a contributor of the New York press for thirty years. In 1856, he married Agnes Hayman, daughter of an old Kentucky family. They had two daughters and two sons. The sons were both lawyers. == References ==