THOMAS J. TALBOTT.
The subject of this sketch was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on
October 17, 1833. He is a son of Thomas Talbott, born in Baltimore,
died in 1844, aged thirty-seven years, and Sarah (Munn) Talbott, who
died in 1883, at the age of sixty-seven years. His parents removed
from Baltimore to Richmond, Virginia, when he was eighteen months
old, and he was reared in the latter city, attending its schools. At the
age of fourteen years he was apprenticed with the firm of Talbott &
Brother. In 1852 he went on the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad,
as locomotive engineer, and a year later on the Richmond & Danville
road, with which he remained until 1857, when he commenced business
for himself, manufacturer of tobacco, in Richmond.
In 1860 he came to Danville, which has since been his home, and his
practical business training, combined with warm interest in the development
of his adopted home, has made him a factor in the subsequent
development of the city, which has, from a population of 3,000 at the
time of his settlement grown to a population of 13,000, with a business
second to that of no city of the State. During the war Mr. Talbott was
captain of a company, having in his charge the Piedmont Railroad
Machine Shop. His brother, Samuel G., served in the Confederate
States Army. After the war Mr. Talbott resumed his business as
tobacco manufacturer, and he is now a member of the firm of Pace,
Talbott & Co., proprietors of the Star Tobacco Factory, No. 3. He is
now, and has been for the past eight years, president of the Tobacco
Board of Trade, of Danville. In politics Mr. Talbott is a Democrat.
He is a member of the City Council, and has been for a number of years,
and as member has been able to advance in many ways the best interests
of the city. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention
which nominated General Hancock at Cincinnati, in 1880.
At Danville, April 24, 1860, he married Mary M. Pace, who was born
in Henry county, Virginia, the daughter of Greenville T. and Nancy
(Hughes) Pace. Her parents are no longer living; her father died in
1878. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Talbott are six living, three
deceased. Carrie P., Nannie H., Sarah G., Greenville P., Lucy H.,
Thomas S., Frank, Mary P., and Watts. Carrie P., the first-born, died
in March, 1866, aged five years, Sarah G., deceased, was the third of
their children.
