The “Other” Webbs

by John Comer

My mother’s mother was a Webb. When I was a child we would occasionally visit the Liberty Baptist Cemetery where Webbs had been laid to rest since the 1840’s. My own grandparents who are buried there were members of the Church of Christ, but most of the early-day Webbs were Methodists. The cemetery itself belongs to a Baptist church that has been active since the 1830’s. All sorts of people, maybe even a few unbelievers, lie tucked within the hallowed soil of this quiet spot located down a country lane near Urbana, Arkansas. It’s only the Lord himself who will be able to sort them all out when the final trumpet blows.

The gravestones of a couple of those Webbs really caught my childhood eyes. There was James, who (it’s written in stone) was in the “Tenn. Vol. Militia, War of 1812.” Then Joseph’s epitaph says that he was in the “37th Ark. Infantry, Confederate States of America.” I always thought it would be great to be kin to such people, but when I’d ask my mother about them, she’d just say, “Those were the other Webbs.” So my hopes of having derring-do ancestors died right there in the cemetery.

But now, after about ten years of detective work, none of which reaches Sherlock Holmes’ brilliance or it wouldn’t have taken so long, I have learned that the War of 1812 veteran was a son of my 4th-great- grandfather which means he was the brother of my 3rd-great-grandfather. (Let’s take a poll here to see how many of you have tuned out by this point in the story.)

But don’t miss this: He who at one point was simply “other” now is recognized as son and brother. Can you see where this is headed?

That Civil War infantryman? He and two of his brothers enlisted in the army at Hillsboro on the same day. It was their father who fought in the War of 1812. A father. More sons. More brothers. Fewer “others.” In truth, there never were any “others.” We just thought there were.

My sister and I have wondered about our mother and these “other” people. How did it happen that she didn’t know they were kin? By the time she came on the scene perhaps something had distanced these families from each other. “Separated brethren,” so to speak.

There may be more in these paragraphs than first meets the eye. Are we Christians missing out on some brothers, thinking they are only “others?” The fourteenth chapter of Romans might help us decide.