Webb, Hon. James Ransom

James Ransom Webb was born near Steelville, Crawford County, Missouri, on February 17, 1847. Raised on a farm, he studied law as a young man and began practicing civil and probate law in Missouri during the early 1870s. He married his first wife, Lillie W. Jamison, on January 31, 1877, before moving to Fresno, California, in the fall of 1882 to continue his legal practice.

Following his first wife death in 1886, Judge Webb briefly practiced in Union, Missouri, before returning to Fresno in 1888. In 1893, Governor Markham appointed him Superior Judge of Fresno County, a position he subsequently held for eight years after winning election to the bench. On December 31, 1900, he married Mary Imogene Anderson, an educator and active civic leader in Fresno, prior to his passing on July 29, 1916.