Representative Albert Gallatin Talbott

Albert Gallatin Talbott (April 4, 1808 – September 9, 1887) was a United States Representative from Kentucky and a prominent state legislator and businessman in the mid-nineteenth century. A member of a politically connected Kentucky family, he was the uncle of U.S. Representative William Clayton Anderson and of Margaret Anderson Watts, a noted civic and reform figure. Over the course of his public career, Talbott combined agricultural, commercial, and real estate enterprises with service in both houses of the Kentucky General Assembly and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Talbott was born near Paris, Bourbon County, Kentucky, on April 4, 1808. In his early childhood he moved with his parents within the Bluegrass region, first to Clark County, Kentucky, in 1813 and then to Jessamine County, Kentucky, in 1818. Growing up in this largely rural but commercially developing area, he was exposed to both farming and the emerging market economy that characterized central Kentucky in the early nineteenth century. His family’s subsequent prominence in state and national affairs reflected the broader political engagement of the region’s professional and landholding classes.

For his education, Talbott attended Forrest Hill Academy in Jessamine County, Kentucky, an institution that prepared young men for professional and public life. He also undertook the study of law, a common avenue of training for aspiring politicians of his generation, but he did not seek admission to the bar and never practiced as an attorney. Instead, he turned his attention to business and agriculture, applying his education to practical pursuits rather than a formal legal career.

By 1831 Talbott had engaged in agricultural pursuits and general trading, activities that placed him within the growing commercial networks of central Kentucky. In 1838 he moved to Mercer County, Kentucky, where he entered the real estate business, an enterprise that would remain central to his livelihood for much of his life. His relocation to Danville, Kentucky, in 1846 further enhanced his position, as Danville was an important regional center of education, law, and commerce. From this base, Talbott developed the economic and social standing that underpinned his entry into public office.

Talbott’s political career began in earnest with his participation in the Kentucky constitutional convention of 1849, where he served as a delegate during a period of significant debate over the structure of state government and issues such as representation and suffrage. The following year, in 1850, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, marking his first formal legislative role. His service in the state legislature coincided with a time of sectional tension and economic change, and it helped establish his reputation as a Democratic Party leader in his region.

Building on his state-level experience, Talbott was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1859. Representing Kentucky during a turbulent pre–Civil War era, he participated in national debates over federal spending, sectional issues, and the administration of the postal system. In the Thirty-fifth Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Post Office Department, a position that gave him oversight responsibilities for one of the federal government’s most extensive and politically sensitive operations. After leaving Congress in 1859, he returned to Kentucky and resumed his real estate pursuits, continuing to be identified with business interests in Danville and the surrounding area.

Talbott later reentered state politics and served in the Kentucky Senate from 1869 to 1873, a period that encompassed the immediate post–Civil War and Reconstruction years, when Kentucky, though not a Reconstruction state, still grappled with the war’s social and economic consequences. In 1883 he again became a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, demonstrating his continued influence in state affairs well into his seventies. His repeated elections to both houses of the General Assembly reflected his standing as an experienced Democratic legislator and a figure of continuity in Kentucky politics.

In his later years, Talbott moved out of Kentucky and settled in Pennsylvania, where he lived near Chestnut Hill, then a semi-rural area on the outskirts of Philadelphia. There he engaged once more in agricultural pursuits, returning to the kind of work that had marked the beginning of his career. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1887. In keeping with his long association with central Kentucky, his remains were returned to the state and interred in Bellevue Cemetery in Danville, Kentucky, underscoring his enduring connection to the community that had been the center of his public and business life.