San Francisco County
FREDERICK ARTHUR WEBSTER
FREDERICK ARTHUR WEBSTER, a photographer of
Oakland, was born in Michigan, May 1, 1860, a son of Edwin B. and Ann (White)
Webster, both living in 1890.
Grandfather Daniel Webster, a native of New York State, a physician by
profession, moved to Michigan in 1831 with his wife (nee Baldwin) and
their two sons and one daughter. The
mother died soon after their arrival, at the age of thirty, and the father
several years later. Of their three
children, all still living, Edwin B. was born in New York in 1826. The Websters are of
New England ancestry. Grandfather White
died at about the age of sixty. His wife
is still living with Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Webster, aged eighty-five.
F. A.
Webster, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the district schools of
Lapeer county, Michigan, and began to learn his present business in Lapeer at
the age of fifteen, being continuously engaged therein ever since, except one
season, 1878-’79, spent at the high school of Vassar, Michigan. His oldest brother, Harry D., had learned
photography some years before, and it was in his gallery in Lapeer that F. A.
learned the business, returning to it in 1879 after a year at high school. About six years later they moved to Greeley,
Colorado, and were partners in business for eighteen months, during nine of
which F. A. was in charge of a branch at Laramie, Wyoming, where his brother
finally located. In 1889 the subject of
this sketch came to Oakland, where he established a photograph gallery in the
most prominent business center of the city, southwest corner of Broadway and
Twelfth streets, where his success has more than realized his
expectations. With a choice location, by
keeping abreast of the times in the art, and the exercise of the courtesy which
is natural to him, his enterprise and energy will keep him in the front rank.
Mr.
F. A. Webster was married in Lapeer, Michighn [sic],
in 1884, to Miss Lottie McCullagh,
born in that city January 19, 1862, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Carl) McCullagh, both residents of Washington State in 1890.
The
brothers and sisters of F. A. Webster are: Harry Dorr, a photographer of
Laramie, Wyoming, with one child, Harold Dorr; Willis, a farmer on the old homestead
in Michigan, with his parents, has two children, Edwin Barlow and Una; Nelson Chase, an employe
[sic] of a road-cart manufacturing company of Flint, Michigan; Mary Isabella, a
stenographer by profession, and Edna Sophia, who resides with her parents in
Lapeer county, Michigan.
Transcribed by Donna L.
Becker.
Source: “The Bay of San
Francisco,” Vol. 2, Pages 646-647, Lewis Publishing Co,
1892.
© 2006 Donna L.
Becker.