Richard Edward Talbott Biography...Barbour County, WV ********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. ********************************************************************** Submitted by: Valerie Crook The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 468-469 RICHARD EDWARD TALBOTT. While he has been a mem- ber of the Philippi bar thirty years, only his early con- temporaries know Mr. Talbott as a practicing attorney. The main interest of his career has been the Citizens Na- tional Bank, of which he has been cashier and active manager since its organization. He is a former state sena- tor, and has frequently been recruited for official duty in his home city and county. His family connections are associated with the very beginning of history in Barbour County. His grandfather, Richard Talbott, was the first known settler in what is now Barbour County, West Virginia. At that time all this portion of the state was included in old Virginia. The father of the Philippi banker was Richard T. Talbott, a native of Barbour County, for many years a well known farmer and citizen at what is now Berryburg, but finally moved to Kansas and died at Pratt in that state in 1901, at the age of eighty-one. He married Margaret Weber, who died at Des Moines, Iowa, in May, 1917, age eighty- five. These old people were the parents of eight sons and six daughters, twelve of whom-reached matured years, Rich- ard Edward, being the ninth child. Richard Edward Talbott was born in Pleasant District of Barbour County, February 21, 1867. The first eighteen years of his life he lived on the farm. While there he attended the common school, also select schools, became a teacher, and taught the school where he himself had been a pupil. He continued teaching during the winter months and attending school during the summer vacations, and for a time was a deputy in the office of the clerk of the county court, a work that paid him a salary and also gave him a knowledge of public business. Finally, in 1891, Mr. Talbott entered the University of West Virginia at Morgan- town, where he graduated from the law department in 1893. He was a member and for one term president of the Parthenon Literary Society at the university. Soon after leaving university he began his law practice at Philippi, but continued it for only about two years. In 1896 he was elected Circuit Court clerk of Barbour County, and served that office for six years. He was elected as a democrat and succeeded James H. Felton. Before the expiration of his term the Citizens National Bank was organized, and he was selected as the first cashier, and since retiring from office has given his undivided time to the duties of that position. The Citizens National Bank was promoted by the Davis- Elkins interests, together with local capital of Philippi. The late Henry Gassoway Davis was the first president, and served six years. The bank was incorporated with a capital of $40,000, and on July 1, 1921, the capital was increased to $50,000. The resources are now one and a quarter million dollars, and for a dozen years this has been the largest bank in Barbour County. Samuel V. Woods is now president, E. R. Dyer, vice president, Mr. Talbott, cashier, and Herman B. Watson, assistant cashier. In getting the things that have gone a long way toward making Philippi a city in fact as well as in name Mr. Talbott has been an enthusiastic worker for a long period of years. He was a leader in securing Broaddus College for this town. Broaddus College was formerly located at Clarksburg, and its removal to Philippi was the result of the local citizens of the latter city raising a fund of $25,000, including the price of the campus. Mr. Talbott had charge of the "thousand dollar" subscriptions and secured fourteen of them. He was elected a member of the Board of Trustees of the college in 1908, has held that post ever since and is also treasurer of the college. From first to last his interest has been very readily enlisted in any matter of education. He was president of the Board of Education of the Philippi Independent School District eight years. He has been a member of the City Council, city clerk and for one year was mayor. During his term of mayor the first bond issue was promoted for street paving and the first actual work of paving was started. Mr. Talbott has always been a democrat, casting his first vote for Grover Cleveland, and has been a delegate to several county and state conventions. He was a spec- tator at the Baltimore convention of 1912 when Woodrow Wilson was first nominated. Mr. Talbott was elected a member of the State Senate from the Thirteenth Senatorial District in 1914. He was nominated without his solicita- tion, and was elected by about 400 votes in a district nomi- nally republican by about 1,500. He was the only man on his ticket who carried his own county, which was otherwise republican. Mr. Talbott entered the Senate during the closing months of Governor Hatfield's administration, and served the first years of Governor Cornwell's administra- tion. The Senate was republican. Mr. Talbott was a member of the finance, labor, railroad and other com- mittees. He actively supported and was in a consid- erable degree instrumental in securing the passage through the Senate of the Anti-Gambling Bill. It was a measure with "teeth" in it, and no doubt its enforcement has done much to reduce gambling throughout the state. Mr. Talbott voted to submit the women's suffrage question to the state, which was defeated when submitted, and he voted for the amendment to the constitution. Mr. Talbott married Miss Etta Strickler on June 5, 1895. She was born at the old Strickler property on the comer now covered by the Citizens National Bank, and in the same house she was married to Mr. Talbott. She is a daughter of Isaac H. and Margaret (Jarvis) Strickler, being one of their family of five daughters and two sons. She was educated in the public schools of Philippi, and was a teacher for several years before her marriage. To their union have been born four children named: Margaret, Edward S., Frances Weber and Richard Kenneth.