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John W. Talbott, one of the most successful and enterprising business men
of Star of the West, is the youngest of seven children born to J.W. and
Rachel (Huddleston) Talbott. The father came to Arkansas in 1816, from St.
Clair County, Ill., and continued to reside here until his death, which
occurred in 1880, at the age of seventy-two years. The mother died in 1855,
at the age of forty. The father was a public-spirited citizen, served as
magistrate in Howard County for a number of years, and filled many other
local positions of trust. John W. Talbott was born in Howard County, Ark.,
on September 1, 1849, and on account of the breaking out of the (Civil)
war, received but a limited education. He started out in life as a farmer,
and this has continued to be his principal occupation ever since. He was
occupied for a number of years in the stock-raising business, but at
present he is engaged in the saw-mill, wool-carding, grist-mill and
cotton-ginning business, being one-half owner of the celebrated Epperson
Mills, located at Star of the West, Pike County. Mr. Talbott has been twice
married; first, in 1874 to Miss Nettie Duncan, a native of Howard County,
Ark., and the daughter of Capt. R.L. Duncan, of Centre Point, Ark. The
fruits of this union were two children: Bettie Lorena and William R., who
died in 1876. Bettie L. is living with her father. Mrs. Talbott died in
1876, and Mr. Talbott took for his second wife Miss Bettie Beene, who was
born in Mississippi, and who came with her parents, Jesse and Matilda Beene,
to Arkansas in 1860. This second union resulted in the birth of one child,
which died while young. Mr. Talbott is a member of the Masonic fraternity,
which he joined in 1873, and he and wife are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South. In politics he is Democratic. Besides the above
mentioned enterprises in which he is engaged, he is one half owner in the
Beene & Talbott store, located at Star of the West, which carries an average
stock of $3,000, doing a general business.
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Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, 1890, Pike County,
page 340.
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