Webb City

Webb City, a city of Jasper county, Missouri, U.S.A., in the S.W. part of the state, about 160 m. S. of Kansas City. Pop. (1890) 5043; (1900) 9201, of whom 248 were foreign-born; (19 io U.S. census) 11,817. It is served by the Missouri Pacific and the St Louis & San Francisco railway systems, and is the headquarters of the electric interurban railway connecting with Carthage and Joplin, Missouri, Galena, Kansas and other cities. With Carterville (pop. 1900, 4445), which adjoins it on the E., it forms practically one city; they are among the most famous and productive "camps" in the rich lead and zinc region of south-western Missouri, and Webb City owes its industrial importance primarily to the mining and shipping of those metals. The value of the factory product increased from $353,566 in 1900 to $637,965 in 1905. Webb City was laid out and incorporated as a town in 1875, and first chartered as a city in 1876. White lead was discovered here in 1873, on the farm of John C. Webb, in whose honour the city is named; and systematic mining began in 1877.