Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of W. Bruce TALBOTT This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 337-338 W. BRUCE TALBOTT had to pay his way while preparing himself for the bar, and that experience brought him to the practice with considerable more than the qualifications of the young law graduate, so that his subsequent advance- ment was rapid. Most of the time since his admission to the bar has been devoted to his duties as prosecuting at- torney of Barbour County. Mr. Talbott was born in Pleasant District, Barbour County June 7, 1888. His people have lived in that sec- tion of the county for several generations, and farming has been their chief vocation. His grandparents were Silas and Sarah (McKinney) Talbott. The father of the prosecuting attorney was the youngest of the twelve children of his parents and was born on a farm in Pleasant District in 1853. Farming has been the work of his life. He was educated in the country schools, and his success on the farm and elsewhere has shown him to be a man of good business judgment. He helped organize the Citizens National Bank of Philippi, and is a director of the People's Bank of that city. In politics he has been satisfied to cast his vote as a democrat, and is a member of the Mis- sionary Baptist Church, though his parents were old-school Baptists. Mr. Talbott married Edith Bartlett, daughter of Judson Bartlett. Their children are: Iva, wife of W. D. Corder, of Philippi; W. Bruce; Hazel, who died in infancy; Ruby, a teacher in Barbour County; E. Wayne, who grad- uated A. B. from the University of West Virginia and is now taking his law course there; and Ralph, a student in the Philippi High School. Mr. Bruce Talbott had the old home farm as his environ- ment until he was about twenty years of age. He knows more about the practical side of farming than perhaps many other lawyers. The public schools near the old home gave him the foundation of his education, and subsequently he attended West Virginia Wesleyan College at Buckhan- non, where he graduated in 1908. He taught two terms of school before graduating and another term afterward, and then for three years worked as office man for the Con- solidation Coal Company. Through this employment he earned the money to complete his law course. Mr. Talbott graduated LL. B. from West Virginia University in 1915, was admitted to the bar at Philippi the same year, and began practice alone. He won his first case, though an unimportant one, in the Circuit Court, and he was soon in possession of a growing law practice. He had practiced about a year before he was elected to the important duties of prosecuting attorney. His election to this office occurred in 1916. He had to contest his nomination in the primaries, but in 1920 he had no competition in the primaries. A distinction that is something out of the ordinary is the fact that Mr. Talbott is the first prosecuting attorney of Barbour County to be elected for two consecutive terms during the past thirty years. The basis of his hold upon the people at the time of his second candidacy was his strong enforcement of the law during his first term. Mr. Talbott cast his first vote for president in 1912 for Mr. Taft, and was a delegate from Barbour County to the Judicial Convention at Huntington in 1916. He is a member of the College Fraternity Beta Theta Pi and in Masonry has taken both the York and Scottish Rite degrees and is a member of Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Wheeling. He is a member of the Baptist Church. In Barbour County July 9, 1909, he married Miss Mabel Right, who was born at Belington, March 13, 1893, daugh- ter of James and Martha (Bennett) Right. She was one of ten children. Mr. and Mrs. Talbott have a family of four children, named Lucille, Rex, Robert and William.