Webster County, West Virginia    Biography of WAITMAN T. TALBOTT

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, March 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 90

WAITMAN T. TALBOTT, engaged in the successful prac-
tice of law at Webster Springs, judicial center of Webster
county, not only has standing as one of the able members
of the bar of his native state but has also given effective
service as a representative of Webster County in the House
of Delegates of the State Legislature, in which he made a
characteristically loyal and effective record and in which he
served during six or more sessions.

Mr. Talbott was born in Barbour County, West Virginia.
on the 28th of September, 1868, and is a son of William W.
and Sarah (Simons) Talbott, both likewise natives of that
county, where the former was born in 1832 and the latter
in 1839. The parents passed their entire lives in Barbour
County, where the father developed and improved an excel-
lent farm near Berryburg, and became a leading exponent
of agricultural and live-stock industry, as well as a citizen
of influence in community affairs of public order. He was
a staunch democrat, and both he and his wife were zealous
members of the Missionary Baptist Church, in which he
served as a deacon. William W. Talbott was a son of Robert 
Talbott, who was a pioneer farmer in Barbour County
and who there served as sheriff prior to the Civil war, four
of his brothers having participated in that fratricidal con-
flict as loyal soldiers of the Confederacy. Of the eleven
children of William W. and Sarah (Simons) Talbott all
except one are living at the time of this writing, in the
spring of 1922: Salathiel M. is a farmer in the vicinity of
Harriman, Idaho; Dr. L. W. is a successful physician and
surgeon at Elkins, West Virginia; Elem D. is engaged in
the practice of law at Elkins; Abraham I. is a member of
the police department of Kansas City, Missouri; Florence
is the widow of Garnett Hudkins; Fitzhugh Lee is in the
employ of the Government in the Yellowstone National
Park; William F. is a farmer near Berryburg, Barbour
County; Waitman T., of this sketch, was next in order of
birth; Virginia is the widow of E. H. Crim and resides at
Philippi, Barbour County; and Robert D. is a prosperous
farmer in that county.

Waitman T. Talbott passed his childhood and earlier
youth on the old home farm which was the place of his
birth, and his public-school discipline was fortified by a
course in the West Virginia State Normal School at Fair-
mont. After leaving that institution he finally entered the
law department of the University of West Virginia, in
which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895
and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was forth-
with admitted to the bar of West Virginia and has since
been engaged in the practice of his profession at Webster
Springs, as one of the leading members of the bar of Web-
ster County. In a fraternal way he maintains affiliation
with Addison Lodge No. 86, Ancient Free and Accepted
Masons.

November 21, 1900, recorded the marriage of Mr. Tal-
bott and Miss Addie B. Greynolds, of Beverly, Randolph
County, and they have three children: William B., Mil-
dred and Kathryn, the two older children being members
of the class of 1923 in the high school at Webster Springs.