Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-09-29
A HUGE FAMILY.
1T CONTAINS MORE THAN 1900
PERSONS.


PERSONS.
Letcher County. Kentucky, Populated by
sthe Descendants of Old Benjamin Webb
Thirty Birthdays Every Day the Year
Around...curious Complications.
There is an entire county in the
eastern part of Kentucky which is
populated by the descendants and
relatives OF angle family. The
original Webb fanny consists of more
than eight hundred direct descendants,
while the number of those who are
more or less closely related to them by
marriage is considerably more than
twelve thousand. The family has up
to the. present time practically filled
Letcher County, and has commenced
to overflow the boundary lines into
the adjosuing counties.
This remarkable population, says q
corresponds Mt of the New YorkWorld,
traces its ancestry directly to Ben
ianin ebb, who settled in this Sec
ton nearly a century ago. At the
present time there are still living six
of his children.
The most numerous branch of the
family is descended from JasonWebb,
w1o is now in his seventy-eight
year. Other children have families
nearly as large, however. Jason lives
in the house, now sixty years old, in
which he began housekeeping and
raised family of nineteen children.
OF this remarkable family sixteen are
still living. The next generation,
which consists of $50 grandchildren,
are oil living. There are besides 80
great-grandchildren and 60 great
great grand children, all ofwhom are at
present living within ten miles of Ja-
son.
1t will occur to most people that a
family of such remarkable proportions
must give rise to many complications.
The descendants of old Benjamin
Webb have for one thing been obliged
to select about eight hundred names
for their children, and the entire
family has been obliged to go through
the ordeal of agreeing upon more
than twelve thousand names. Com
pared with this task the work of nam
ing the streets of an entire city like
New York would be triaing.
IF each member of the family should
attempt to give presents at Christmas
to all the other members the expense
would be something startling.
In the immediate family there is an
average of nearly three birthdays
celebrated every day. The entire
family, it may readily be calculated,
might celebrate thirty birthdays every
day in the year.
One of the most remarkable OF the
original family is Uncle Miles, who
though seventy-fve years old, is about
to marry a sister-in-law. This re-
markable old man has fourteen chill
dren, all of whom are married and
have large families. He is unable to
tell the exact number of descendants
who should be credited to him, but
thinks that conservative estimate
would place the number of grand
children at 100, great-grandchildren
seventy-fve, and great-great-grand-
children at about forty.
The Oldest living member of the
i'v.is Aunt Polly, who is eighty
ears old. Her branch of the
tree comprises eight living
grandchildren, forty
81 ichildren, and twenty
al lt-grandchildren. Her
who is known as the
e family, is but seventy
vae old. Her branch, which
IS we generations, is made up
Inety-eight members.
s'le ntire population of Letcher
NY, it is claimed, can trace their
;ry very clearly back to but four
.milies, who were the first to settle
in this section. These families were
the Crafts, Adamses and Halbrookes,
and, of course, the Webbs. The de-
scendants have married and inter-
married in most perple1ing manner.
Only very few of them have ever
seen railroad train.
The little county, as might be i'm
agined, is in reality 0 small kingdom,
over which the elder Webbs are polit-
ical monarchs. Whenever Webb
wishes to>hold any Office in tho coun-
ty the result is a foregone conclusion.
Such condition of affairs does not,
it is very safe to say, e1istin any other
State in the Union.
A Washington correspondent tells