San Francisco County
Biographies
EDWARD JAMES
TALBOTT
Edward James Talbott is numbered among the able and successful representatives of the legal profession in San Francisco, where he has been actively engaged in law practice during the past three decades. At native of California, he was born at Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, August 9, 1878, his parents being William Lyman and Amelia (Irwin) Talbott. His mother’s ancestors included several noted jurists. His grandfather, James Matthew Talbott, was a California forty-niner, making the trip by way of the isthmus. Subsequently he returned to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in 1851 brought out his family. James M. Talbott was engaged in mining, later was in the pottery industry and finally gave his declining years to farming. William L. Talbott, father of Edward J., was three years of age when the family came to California in 1851. He has been a prominent citizen of Santa Barbara county, a farmer and stock grower, and has taken a helpful interest in public affairs. He has rendered effective service to his fellow townsmen in the capacity of county supervisor and made a most creditable record as a member of the state legislature in 1893.
Edward J. Talbott was educated in the grammar schools of Lompoc, completed his high school course in the spring of 1896 and in August of the same year entered the University of California. He pursued the scientific course, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Science in May, 1900. It was only at the close of his college career that he fully determined upon the profession of the law as a life work. Then entering Hastings College of Law of the University of California, he remained a diligent student for two years and in May, 1902, was admitted to practice before the supreme court of California as a qualified attorney. Mr. Talbott from the first has engaged in practice at San Francisco. His partnership with William J. Herrin continued until the latter’s death in 1913, since which date he has practiced alone, maintaining a well appointed office at 704 Market street. We quote from “California and Californians,” published in 1926: “Edward J. Talbott has achieved recognition as one of the leading lawyers of the state in probate and corporation work. He had seldom appeared as counsel in a criminal case, and his activities are therefore not as well known to the public as those of some lesser lights of the bar . . . . He has been one of the attorneys in the litigation over the estate of Thomas Bell, one of the longest drawn out and hardest fought cases in California’s history . . . As a probate lawyer Mr. Talbott has been an attorney in other cases involving large estates. He is general counsel for a number of corporations, including the San Francisco Sulphur Company, which handles the bulk of the business of the import and export of sulphur through San Francisco. Mr. Talbott is interested financially in this corporation and in other companies.”
On the 25th of December, 1906, at San Francisco, Mr. Talbott was united in marriage to Lillie V. Rose, of St. Paul, Minnesota, and they have a daughter, Lillie Irene. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party and fraternally is affiliated with the Masons and the Elks, belonging to San Mateo Lodge, No. 1112, B. P. O. E. His name is also on the membership rolls of the Commonwealth Club of California and the National Geographic Society, and he has long enjoyed high standing in both social and professional circles of his adopted city.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 406-410.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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