Montrose County CO Archives Biographies.....Talbert, Shadrack T.   December 4, 1833 - ?
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Judy Crook jlcrook@rof.net February 25, 2006, 10:56 am

Author: Progressive Men of Western Colorado

     The Paradox valley in Montrose county was a land of promise to its early

settlers, whose imagination saw it redeemed from its wild and uncomely condition

and blossoming with the fragrance and fruitful with the products of cultivated

life after the contest with wild men, wild beasts and the wild growth of

centuries should be won; and with lofty faith in the vision they camped upon its

fertile soil and began the battle for supremacy.  It responded readily to the

persuasive hand of systematic industry, and before the march of civilization its

savage denizens slowly and sullenly but steadily retired.  The promise has been

realized, hope has ended in fruition, faith in sight, and now the region brings

forth in abundance everything good and beautiful and nourishing.  Among the men

of lofty spirit and daring confidence who first invaded its unbroken solitudes

and essayed to plant therein the beneficent activities of modern culture,

Shadrack T. Talbert, living near the village of Paradox, and now one of the

enterprising and progressive stock men and farmers of the valley, was the fourth

to arrive, twenty-three years ago.  He was born in Warren county, Kentucky, on

December 4, 1833, and is the son of Thomas and Lottie Talbert, themselves native

in the Blue Grass state.  When he was about nine years old they moved to

Missouri, and locating in Pulaski county, continued there the farming industry

they had been carrying on at their former home.  Here he grew to manhood and

completed the common-school education which had scarcely more than begun in his

native state.  When the Civil war began he joined Price’s army in defense of the

Confederacy, and at the close of the sanguinary conflict returned to his home

and for a number of years thereafter engaged in farming and other pursuits.  In

1874 he moved to Arkansas, and a few years later crossed the plains to Nevada,

where he was occupied in mining until 1880.  He then came to Colorado and

located on the land where he now lives.  There were but three settlers in the

valley at the time of his arrival, and all the work of reducing the land and its

savage occupants to subjection was yet to do.  But he and the others, and those

who have come hither since, have persevered in their purpose, and now Mr.

Talbert has a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres, well improved and in

an advanced state of cultivation, and an excellent orchard of choice fruit of

his own planting.  His herd comprises about fifty cattle of good breeds and is

kept in prime condition.  He is also interested in mining with favorable

results.  In 1854, in Dent county, Missouri, he was married to Miss Catherine

Lamb, a native of that state.  She died on the farm on July 27, 1881, leaving

four children, George, Thomas, Andrew and Frank, who are all living.  Mr.

Talbert is one of the patriarchs of this region and one of its leading citizens.

 He sees the fruits of his labors plentiful and beneficent about him, and time

has set on his career the approval which is seldom accorded except to the

departed.  He lives in comfort and peace, and crowned with the general esteem of

his fellow citizens of the section and the surrounding country.        

Additional Comments:
From Progressive Men of Western Colorado.  Chicago:  A.W. Bowen & Co., 1905

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/montrose/bios/talbert180gbs.txt

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