Marion County, West Virginia Biography of Robert TALBOTT ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: Material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor. Submitted by Valerie Crook, , March 1999 ************************************************************************** The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 59 ROBERT TALBOTT, of Fairmont, Marion County, is execu- tive head of Robert Talbott & Company, owners of the Agnes Coal Mine, two and one-half miles distance from Lowesville, in Monongalia County, and is one of the suc- cessful coal operators of West Virginia. Mr. Talbott was born in the City of Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, May 20, 1852, and is a son of Dennis and Julia (Sullivan) Talbott, both natives of Ireland, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they came to the United States in 1851. In this country Dennis Talbott was first employed in connection with railroad construction, and eventually he became a contractor in this line of work. After the close of the Civil war he came to West Vir- ginia to fulfill a contract in connection with the construc- tion of the old Cumberland Valley Railroad, and in the meanwhile the family home was established at Martinsburg, this state. He did not long remain in West Virginia, and upon his return to Pennsylvania he established his resi- dence at Boiling Springs, near Carlisle, he having been for two years engaged in carrying out a railroad-construc- tion contract in that section of the state, and the next two years having been given to a contract on the Tuscarwas Railroad in Ohio, now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. Robert Talbott gained his early education in the schools of the various places where the family resided in connection with the father's contracting business, and even as a boy he began to work with his father. After the completion of the above mentioned contract in Ohio he began to take charge of operations as a boss on the construction work, and finally he became the virtual director of operations, though his father continued to retain an interest in the business. For a term of years the family remained to- gether, and the father and sons were associated in the con- tracting business, the parents moving about from place to place, as contracts were taken, until they grew venerable in age. After leaving Ohio the Talbotts completed a con- tract on the Johnstown & Cambria Railroad (now a part of the Pennsylvania system), and about this time Robert Talbott formed a partnership with James A. Bennett, under the title of Bennett & Talbott, contractors. The first con- tract of the new firm was for the construction of two miles on the Pennsylvania Railroad branch from Brownsville to Uniontown, Pennsylvania; the next work was in the build- ing of a branch line from Redstone, Pennsylvania, to the plant of the H. C. Frick Coal Company; and subsequent contracts in turn were on a Pennsylvania Railroad branch at Mount Pleasant and the construction of two miles of road for the same corporation at Greensburg, that state. In 1884 the firm completed a contract for the construction of a portion of a branch of the Fairmont, Morgantown & Pittsburgh Division of the B. & 0. Railroad. Thereafter operations were directed to the building of coke ovens at various points in Pennsylvania. The firm next took up a contract in the construction of the tunnel at Outcrop, Pennsylvania, and later did similar tunnel construction near Cumberland, Maryland, and Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, for the Buffalo & Rochester Railroad, and at Whitehall and Thomas, that state, for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the next contract being for a tunnel for the latter road at Patterson's Creek Cut-off, near Cumberland, Maryland. Next was carried out a grading and tunnel contract at Flushing, Ohio and the next four years were given to the building of tunnels and to other construction work at Otis- ville, New York. In 1909 the firm returned to West Vir- ginia and entered upon important contracting work for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The firm built the tunnel at Tunnelton and two tunnels and two bridges at Magnolia Cut-off. The original firm is still in existence, Mr. Bennett maintaining his home at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and Mr. Talbott at Fairmont, West Virginia. In 1917 Mr. Talbott entered the coal-operating industry by purchasing a farm in Grant District, Monongalia County, and there opening a mine. In May of the following year he sold this mine and then opened another mine on the same tract, this being known as the Agnes Mine and being successfully operated by the firm of Robert Talbott & Company. Later Mr. Talbott purchased a half interest in the North Fairmont Coal Company, but he has disposed of this interest. He is a director of the Home Savings Bank of Fairmont and is one of the vigorous and substan- tial figures in the industrial activities of this section of West Virginia. He is a communicant of the Catholic Church, and is a democrat in polities. Mrs. Robert Talbott is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Talbott married Miss Carrie M. Hood, who was born on the farm which her husband purchased in Grant District, Monongalia County, and which is still owned by him, her father, John S. Hood having there followed farm enterprise for many years. James Paul, eldest of the chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. Talbott, is now (1922) twenty-seven years old and is a member of the firm Robert Talbott & Company; Robert M., aged twenty-four years, became a member of the Coast Artillery and was on the battle front with the American Expeditionary Forces in France at the time the signing of the armistice brought the World war to a close, he being now associated with Robert Talbott & Company; Agnes G. is a student at the West Virginia University.