Nevada Genealogy Trails Elko County Hon. George F. Talbot Biography

HON. GEORGE FREDERICK TALBOT, a judge, of the supreme court of Nevada, came to the state in 1869. He is a native of Connecticut, where he was born April 16, 1859, coming of English and Irish ancestry, representatives of both sides of the family being early settlers in New England. His father, Henry M. Talbot, was born in Connecticut and married Almira Ayer, of English and Scotch ancestry, who traced her ancestors in Connecticut back to John Ayer, who was one of the progenitors of the family in the United States. John Ayer was born in February, 1688, and died February 20, 1760, aged seventy-two years. Joseph Ayer was born April 3, 1721, and died April 1, 1814, aged ninety-three years. Elisha, the son of Joseph, was born August 16, 1757, married Thankful Drake, a descendant of another old New England family, and he died June 20, 1853, aged ninety-six years. His son, George Ayer, was born February 12, 1796, married Julia Stoddard, and died February 23, 1891, aged ninety-six years. The last two named were the grandparents of Judge Talbot on the maternal side. The Ayer family is a very long-lived one, and members of it were active in the Revolutionary war. In religious belief they were Congregationalists and Unitarians. The death of the father of Judge Talbot took place in 1901, when he was sixty-five years of age, but his mother survives and is now sixty-three years old, and she makes her home in San Jose, California. Henry M. Talbot, the father of the Judge, crossed the plains to California and became a farmer in that state, but later, enticed by the White Pine excitement, removed to Elko county, Nevada, in 1869, and took up land, and from it improved a fine farm and engaged in raising barley and potatoes.

The only child of these parents was Judge Talbot, and he was only ten years old when the family settled in Nevada, but prior to that he had received instruction in Grass Valley, California. Later he attended school in Nevada, but in 1872 was sent to Connecticut and later went to Dickinson, Pennsylvania, where he finished his education. He then returned to Nevada and continued the law studies he had begun in Pennsylvania, in the office of Judge Biglow in Elko. In 1881 he was admitted to the bar, and practiced until 1884, when he was elected district attorney, and was re-elected in 1886. In 1890 he was elected district judge, the state being then all in one district. After the new districts were formed he was elected, in 1894, judge of the fourth judicial district, and in 1898 re-elected without opposition. Still greater honors awaited Judge Talbot, for in 1902 he was elected supreme judge and entered upon the duties of his office in January, 1903. Few lawyers in the country are as well read and highly educated as Judge Talbot, and his decisions are marked by their clearness, justice and impartiality.

Judge Talbot is largely interested in sheep and cattle raising, and is a large stockholder in several very valuable mines. He is the owner of several thousands of acres of land, and is a very successful business man, as well as an honor to both bench and bar. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and after casting his first vote was a Republican until the silver question confronted the people, when he felt compelled to give his support to the principles upon the money question he deemed right and just, and is now one of the leading lights of the silver party in Nevada.