Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the E. Y. Webb Papers #3482, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Elizabeth Yates Webb Veatch of Washington, D.C., in May 1960.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Agricultural laws and legislation--United States--History--20th century.
• Atlantic and Yadkin Railway Company.
• Bailey, Josiah William, 1873-1946.
• Clark, David.
• Clarkson, Heriot, 1863-1942.
• Connor, Henry G. (Henry Groves), 1852-1924.
• Daniels, Josephus, 1862-1948.
• Davis, Herbert L.
• Democratic Party (N.C.)--History--20th century.
• Drugs--Law and legislation--United States--History--20th century.
• Electioneering--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Food law and legislation--United States--History.
• Gardner, Oliver Max, 1882-1947.
• Gardner-Webb College.
• Harris, Wade H. (Wade Hampton), 1858-1935.
• Hoey, Clyde Roark, 1877-1954.
• Jonas, Charles A. (Charles Andrew), 1876-1955.
• Judges--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Kitchin, Claude, 1869-1923.
• Labor laws and legislation--United States--History--20th century.
• Legislators--United States--Correspondence.
• Meekins, Isaac Melson, 1875-1946.
• Mull, Odus M.
• Nativism--History--20th century.
• North Carolina--Politics and government--1865-1950.
• Overman, Lee S. (Lee Slater), 1854-1930.
• Page, Robert Newton, 1859-1933.
• Parker, John Johnston, 1885-1958.
• Poe, Clarence Hamilton, 1881- .
• Poteat, William Louis, 1856-1938.
• Pratt, Joseph Hyde, 1870-1942.
• Prohibition--United States.
• Tariff--Law and legislation--United States.
• Tompkins, Daniel Augustus, 1851-1914.
• United States. Congress. House--History--20th century.
• Webb, E. Y. (Edwin Yates), 1872-1955.
• Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924.
• Women--Suffrage--United States.

Edwin Yates Webb (23 May 1872-7 February 1955) of Shelby, N.C., graduated from Wake Forest College in 1893. He took a law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1894 and passed the bar examination in 1896. He then studied constitutional law at the University of Virginia. In 1898, Webb was chair of the Cleveland County, N.C., Democratic Executive Committee. From 1900 until 1902, he was a state senator from Cleveland County. Webb served as a Democratic member of the United States Congress from March 1903 until November 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed him district judge of the Western District of North Carolina. He served as district judge until 1 March 1948.

Webb's parents were Reverend George M. Webb, a Baptist minister, and Priscilla Jane Blanton Webb. His first wife was Willie Simmons of Wake Forest, N.C., with whom he had three children: Elizabeth Y., Edwin Y., and William Y. Willie Simmons Webb died in 1923. In 1928, Webb married Alice Pender Taylor of Tarboro, N.C. She had two children from a previous marriage.

Correspondence and other papers of E. Y. Webb, chiefly during his service as member of the United States Congress, 1903-1919, and as federal district court judge, 1919-1948. There is little correspondence for the years 1901-1907 or 1948-1955.

Congressional correspondence concerns the interests of constituents; prohibition, of which Webb was a leading advocate; agricultural laws and legislation; labor laws and legislation; the tariff; nativism; women's suffrage; pure food and drug laws; issues surrounding World War I; Democratic Party politics; Webb's re-election campaigns; and other matters. Webb's friends, constituents, political supporters, and fellow attorneys wrote to him offering views on issues before Congress. Several items, 1915-1920, concern the passage of the 19th Amendment, against which Webb successfully mounted delaying actions, using his position as member and then chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Beginning in 1919, correspondence relates to law; the judiciary; politics; civic and personal concerns, including Gardner-Webb College; and national, state, and local prohibition. Also included in the collection are papers relating to bankruptcy proceedings against the Atlantic and Yadkin Railway Company.

Correspondents include Odus M. Mull, Webb's law partner in Shelby, N.C.; Charles A. Jonas; Robert N. Page; Herbert L. Davis; Josiah W. Bailey; David Clark; Heriot Clarkson; Henry Groves Connor; Josephus Daniels; O. Max Gardner; Wade Hampton Harris; Clyde R. Hoey; Claude Kitchin; Isaac M. Meekins; Lee S. Overman; John J. Parker; Clarence H. Poe; William Louis Poteat; Joseph Hyde Pratt; Daniel A. Tompkins; and Woodrow Wilson.