Drury John TALLANT

 

Drury John TALLANT.  It is especially gratifying to be able to offer in this publication even a  brief tribute to this honored pioneer and influential business man who in his day did much to forward the progress and prosperity of San Francisco, in which city he was long and actively identified with banking enterprise, he having been one of the venerable and veteran representatives of this line of business here at the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1882.

 

Mr. TALLANT was born in England, on the 5^th of July, 1812, and was a son of William and Jane (DRURY) TALLANT, who passed their entire lives in England, their other five children having been William, Jr., Sarah Ann, Jane, Henry and Walter.  Mr. TALLANT received good educational advantages in his youth, and was about eighteen years of age when he came to the United States and became associated with the banking house of James ROBB in the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he remained several years and gained valuable experience in American business methods and policies, especially along financial lines.  In coming to California he made his way through Mexico, three months being required to complete the journey to San Francisco, where he arrived July 15, 1849, the historic year which marked the discovery of gold in California and ushered in the era of development and progress in this fair commonwealth.  In San Francisco, he organized the banking house of TALLANT & WILDE, and he made this one of the strong, useful and valuable financial institutions of the pioneer period in California history.  After the death of Judge WILDE the name of the institution was changed to the TALLANT Banking Company.  He had much of leadership in community affairs, was known and honored for his sterling character, and he lived and labored wisely and well, the angle of his influence constantly widening in beneficence in connection with the civic and business life of the city and state in which he long maintained his home and of which he may consistently be termed one of the founders and builders.  Mr. TALLANT was an early and active member of the Pacific Union Club, and was serving  as treasurer of the Society of California Pioneers at the time of his death, which occurred shortly after he had celebrated the seventieth anniversary of his birth.

 

Mr. TALLANT chose as his wife Miss Elizabeth MCCOY, a daughter of Gen. Robert MCCOY, who was born in the north of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry, and who was a child at the time of the family immigration to America.  He was reared in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and in connection with military affairs served as commissary general and also as brigadier-general in active warfare, besides which he gained distinction in public affairs and was called into service as a member of the United States Congress.  Mrs. TALLANT died when about sixty-three years of age.  Of this writing, in the winter of 1922-23: Elizabeth, the widow of the late Capt. John J. BRICE, of the United States Navy, resides in San Francisco and has graciously supplied the data from which this memorial tribute to her father is drawn, and George Payne TALLANT and Mrs. Ann T.  BRODIE, who reside at Santa Barbara, this state.  The firstborn child died young, as did also the ninth and tenth, and the names of the other deceased children are here recorded: Robert, John D., Jane, Anne and Frederick William.