Noted historian Walter Prescott Webb came with his family to Stephens County at the age of four. Over the next seventeen years, he received an education in frontier life that formed the basis of his intellectual development and his theories on the role of the Great Plains in American history. His father, Casner, was a rural schoolteacher and farmer, and as he moved to different teaching assignments, the family moved with him. Webb was thus exposed to the county's physical geographical variety, which was important to his western thesis, while his neighbors were prime sources of frontier lore. Although his public school experience was infrequent, during these formative years in Stephens County he developed his love of books and his desire to attend college. During this time, William Hinds of New York contacted Webb and became his benefactor and a great source of encouragement. In 1906 Webb received his teaching certificate and spent the next three years as a rural educator. In 1909, at the age of 21, he left his home in Stephens County to pursue his college education at the University of Texas in Austin.