Nehemiah M. Webb is the founder of the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Letcher County, in 1903, at a time when 24 contiguous head-water counties in Eastern Kentucky had no printing press. He was born on a mountain farm in 1865, and attended a log cabin school learning land surveying. Webb taught school for several years. He struggled against terrible odds to start his paper in an area where most people were illiterate, roads were nearly impassable and travel was mainly by horseback. Webb once commented, “I started life as a poor farmer, became a poor surveyor and then a poor school teacher, and now I am a poor newspaperman!” He was the first Kentucky mountain journalist to have a photograph displayed in the Library of Congress. Webb served eight years as postmaster of Whitesburg during the terms of President Woodrow Wilson. He is credited with helping improve economic and educational conditions in Letcher County, especially after the opening of coal fields and coming of railroad in 1912. Webb started the Neon News around 1926. He continued to write for papers after reorganization forced by bankruptcy during the depression. Nehemiah M. Webb died July on 30, 1945.