Webb was born in
Grass Valley, California on October 13, 1853. He married his wife, Mary Jane, in
San Diego in 1875, before moving to Arizona in either 1876 or 1877, where he became a farmer and cattle rancher in Maricopa County. The couple had twelve children, nine boys and three girls. In 1895 another son of Webb's, Albert, died of
diphtheria at the age of 6. His father, George Webb, committed suicide in 1896, by shooting himself in the head. Another child of the Webb's, a 10-month old infant, died suddenly at their home in Phoenix on Central Avenue in November 1898. In 1889, he purchased the Tasker Ranch from Dr. L. H. Goodrich, comprising 160 acres northwest of
Phoenix for $16,000. In early 1898 he briefly worked as a deputy U. S. Marshall, and participated in the posse which tracked down the outlaw known as "Black Jack". In 1889 he purchased the
Phoenix Gazette. In May 1893 Webb sold his interests in the
Gazette. In April 1898, Webb took a position at
The Phoenix Gazette, the paper he used to own. He and his family left Nogales and returned to live in Phoenix. In October of that year, Webb and his partner, John O. Dunbar, purchased a 50 percent interest in the paper, making Dunbar the editor and Webb the business manager. In 1899,
Myron H. McCord, former territorial governor of Arizona, purchased a controlling interest in the paper, and ousted Webb and Dunbar. In 1902, Webb purchased
The Arizona Democrat, a small bi-weekly paper in Phoenix, promising to make it into a daily morning paper. At the same time, Webb also attempted to regain control of
The Phoenix Gazette. Taken over several years earlier by Myron H. McCord. Webb exercised an option to invest $7,555 into the paper, and after McCord left Phoenix to go to Washington D.C., Webb called meetings of the board of directors of the paper and ousted McCord as managing editor, much like McCord had ousted him three years earlier. The paper, which had been slanted towards Democrats, had shifted to slant to the Republicans under McCord. With a return to Webb, a staunch Democrat, it was expected that the paper would return to a Democrat's slant. After several contentious months, Webb lost control of the
Gazette, when the Creighton Brothers purchased Webb's in the paper in April 1902. In February 1903, Webb also departed from the
Phoenix Democrat. In 1892, he became the primary investor in a mine, the "Relief Mine", north of Phoenix, between
New River and
Agua Fria, which became quite lucrative. He sold the Relief Mine to George Hamlin in 1901 for $10,000. In May 1896, Webb became the owner of the "Favorite Mine", about 60 miles south of Nogales in
Sonora, Mexico. The mine was very lucrative. Tragedy struck at the mine in June 1897 when Webb's 19-year-old son, George W., was killed in a mining accident. Around noon on June 28 around noon, miners had loaded five holes in preparation for blasting, and George had begun to light the fuses to set them off in order, when one blasts went off prematurely, causing George to be struck in the face and chest with rock shrapnel. He did not die immediately, but lingered on for much of the remainder of the day, finally dying around 9:30 that night. George's brother, Morgan, rode to Nogales to inform their parents of the accident, and the elder Webb and his wife rode down to the mine, but were met on the way with the news of their son's death. They brought the young man's body back to Nogales, where he was buried. Webb sold the mine for a significant amount the following month. After a long illness, Webb died unexpectedly in his home in Phoenix on November 7, 1920. ==Political career==