Charles Wilkins Webber (May 29, 1819 – April 11, 1856) was an American

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

Biography

Webber was born at

Russellville, Kentucky Russellville is a home rule-class city in Logan County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 6,960 at the time of the 2010 census. History Local historian Alex C. Finley has claimed the area was fi ...

. He was the son of Augustine Webber, a well-known

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. His mother, who was the daughter of Gen. John Tannehill, passed on to him a fondness for outdoor life. In 1838, Webber went to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, then struggling for independence; was for several years connected with the famous Texas Rangers, seeing much of wild and adventurous life on the frontier; returned to Kentucky and studied medicine; afterward entered

Princeton Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a Private university, private seminary, school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Establish ...

with a view to the

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

ministry, but abandoned that purpose, and settled in New York as a writer for literary periodicals, especially ''The New World'', ''The Democratic Review'', and ''The Sunday Despatch''; was associate editor and joint proprietor of ''The Whig Review''; planned, with the two sons of his friend

John James Audubon John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Rabin, April 26, 1785 – January 27, 1851) was a French-American Autodidacticism, self-trained artist, natural history, naturalist, and ornithology, ornithologist. His combined interests in art and ornitho ...

the naturalist, a monthly magazine of mammoth size, to be illustrated with copper-plate colored engravings by Audubon, but published only the first number; was engaged in an unsuccessful attempt to lead an exploring and mining expedition to the region of the

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and Gila rivers in 1849. A principal reason for the failure of the expedition to the west was the seizure of the horses by

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

Indians Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

. The difficulty in crossing the western deserts led to his efforts to form a

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

company, for which he obtained a charter from the New York legislature in 1854. In 1855, he went to

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, where he joined the

filibuster A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking ...

William Walker William Walker may refer to: Arts * William Walker (engraver) (1791–1867), mezzotint engraver of portrait of Robert Burns * William Sidney Walker (1795–1846), English Shakespearean critic * William Walker (composer) (1809–1875), American Bap ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, to fight in the

Filibuster War The Filibuster War, otherwise referred to as the Walker affair, or The National Campaign of 1856 and 1857 in Costa Rica, was a military conflict between filibustering multinational troops stationed in Nicaragua and a coalition of Central Ame ...

, and was killed in the

Second Battle of Rivas The Second Battle of Rivas occurred on 11 April 1856 between Costa Rican militia under General Juan Rafael Mora Porras and the Nicaraguan forces of American mercenary William Walker (filibuster), William Walker. The lesser known First Battle of ...

Works

In addition to his contributions to periodicals, he authored ''Old Hicks the Guide, or Adventures in the Comanche Country in Search of a Gold-Mine'' (New York, 1848); ''The Gold-Mines of the Gila'' (1849); ''The Hunter Naturalist, a Romance of Sporting'' (Philadelphia, 1851), with 40 engravings from original drawings by Mrs. Webber; ''Wild Scenes and Song-Birds'' (New York, 1854), with 20 colored illustrations from drawings by Mrs. Webber; ''Tales of the Southern Border'' (part i, 1852; complete, 1853); ''Spiritual Vampirism'' (1853); ''Jack Long; or The Shot in the Eye'' (a Gothic Western highly praised by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

); ''Adventures with the Texan Rifle Rangers'' (London, 1853); ''History of Mystery'' (Philadelphia, 1855); and other works.

Possible identification as Judge Holden

Webber is arguably the most popular historical figure to be identified with the "

Judge Holden Judge Holden is a fictional character from the novel '' Blood Meridian'' by Cormac McCarthy, and is based on a historical person who partnered with John Joel Glanton as a professional scalp-hunter in Mexico and the American Southwest during the ...

" whom

Samuel Chamberlain Samuel Emery Chamberlain (November 27, 1829 – November 10, 1908) was an American soldier, painter, and author who traveled throughout the American Southwest and Mexico during the mid-19th century. Early life Chamberlain was born in Center H ...

talks about in his book ''My Confession: The Recollections of a Rogue'', a person who inspired the character of the same name in

Cormac McCarthy Cormac McCarthy (born Charles Joseph McCarthy Jr.; July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) was an American author who wrote twelve novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, spanning the Western, post-apocalyptic, and Southern Got ...

's famous novel ''

Blood Meridian ''Blood Meridian Or The Evening Redness in the West'' is a 1985 epic historical novel by American author Cormac McCarthy, classified under the Western, or sometimes the anti-Western, genre. McCarthy's fifth book, it was published by Random Hou ...

''. Webber was active in the same region that Chamberlain described during the same time period. Holden was also a polymath, skilled in the very same areas as Webber, such as biology and theology. Furthermore, Webber's presence in Nicaragua with William Walker and the filibusters made him a close colleague of Charley Brown, a known member of Glanton's scalping party. Webber was known to use the alias "Holden" and had written for a publication called "Holden's Dollar Magazine". Webber's writings seem to fit the profile of Holden, namely his fictional story "Jack Long, or, the Shot in the Eye", which glorified revenge, violence and cowardly methods of murder like shooting a man in the back. Chamberlain described Holden as "an arrant coward". In his book "Spiritual Vampirism: the History of the Etherial Softdown and Her Friends of the New Light", Webber conflated good and evil, writing: "the fierce half-monkey being is propelled onwards, and even upwards, by the basest of the purely animal instincts, appetites, and lusts. If such beings strive towards the light of the harmonious and the beautiful, it is not because they yearn for either the holy or the good, but because it lends a lurid charm to appetite and glorifies a lust." This bizarre perspective on good and evil matches well with Holden's "war is the truest form of divination" speech in ''Blood Meridian''. Webber also married a woman from Boston, which fits with Chamberlain's description of Holden: "he would often seek conversation with me and speak of Massachusetts and to my astonishment I found he knew more about Boston than I did". Others have speculated that John Allen Veatch is another possible historical identification for Judge Holden.https://allthatsinteresting.com/judge-holden

References

External links

* This article incorporates text from the

Universal Cyclopædia & Atlas The 12-volume ''Universal Cyclopaedia'' was edited by Charles Kendall Adams, and was published by D. Appleton & Company in 1900. The name was changed to ''Universal Cyclopaedia and Atlas'' in 1902, with Rossiter Johnson as the editor. History Th ...

, 1902, New York, D. Appleton & Co., a publication now in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Webber, Charles Wilkins 1819 births 1856 deaths People from Russellville, Kentucky Gila River 19th-century American journalists American male journalists 19th-century American male writers