S. O. POMEROY
JIM LANE
J. H. TALBOTT.
J. H. Talbott came west in 1855 and was a passenger on the “A. B. Chambers,” of which George W. Bowman was captain and E. K. Blair, second clerk. The cholera was so bad that year that Mr. Talbott left the boat at Jefferson City and came overland to Monrovia, although his passage was paid to Leavenworth. Several passengers on the “A. B. Chambers” died of cholera and were buried on sand bars. Mr. Talbott preëmpted a claim at Monrovia, and when his family came two years later he kept a boarding house at Monrovia for four years. Albert D. Richardson was often a guest at his house. He was a clean, neat city man of about thirty, and was engaged in writing up the Kansas war for the New York Tribune. Jim Lane also stopped at J. H. Talbott’s occasionally. Mr. Talbott first heard him make a speech in a grove at Pardee, and A. J. Westbrook was in the audience. Lane made some abusive reference to Westbrook, who made a movement as if to pull a pistol, but Lane shook his celebrated boney finger at Westbrook and defied him to shoot. At that time Atchison was controlled by the pro-slavery element, but the Free State men predominated around Monrovia and Pardee. The noted Colonel Caleb lived at Farmington. James Ridpath was often at J. H. Talbott’s, and D. R. Anthony and Webb Wilder appeared there as young men and took up claims.
Another famous place in those days was the Seven Mile House, seven miles west of Atchison on the road traveled by the freighters, kept by John Bradford. Talbott’s boarding house was built of logs and the beds were nailed against the wall, one above another. Sometimes the house was so crowded that the floor was also occupied with beds.
Mr. Talbott was born in Canal Dover, Ohio, where he knew W. C. Quantrill real well. Quantrill afterwards became the noted guerilla and sacked Lawrence. Mrs. Talbott went to school with Quantrill, and the teacher was Quantrill’s father, a very worthy man. After Mr. Talbott married he removed to Zanesville, Ind., and kept a store with S. J. H. Snyder, who was one of the early settlers of Atchison county and a fierce Free State man. In a little while Will Quantrill appeared at Zanesville and taught school in the country. He usually spent his Saturdays and Sundays at J. H. Talbott’s house, on the strength of their acquaintance at Canal Dover. Mr. Talbott says he was well behaved and attracted great attention around the store, particularly from the young men.
In 1854 Quantrill left Zanesville and settled at Lawrence, Kan., as a Free State man and taught school, where he became acquainted with Robert Bitter Morrow, whose life he afterwards saved during the massacre. Robert Morrow kept the Byram in Atchison several years. When Talbott went to Monrovia in 1855, the country was full of Kickapoo Indians. He remembers seeing an Indian grave there: a rail pen covered with brush. In the middle of the pen could be seen the dead Indian in a sitting posture, with his gun beside him.