Confederate veteran
Interment source:
Marie Blucher, Librarian, La Retama Public Library, ca. 1940
As cited in:
Marrow, Mary, Bay View Cemetery. Corpus Christi: La Retama Public Library, 1962.
NO HEADSTONE
Biography
It may be that this is in fact a mistake in early listings of the Confederate dead in Old Bayview. There are no documents in the local county found so far that list any M. Talbot in this area. Unfortunately the information in the Old Bayview references for this reported person reports mostly the absence of information. There is no gravestone, and there is no listing of death or burial. There is only a listing of "M. Talbot" among some of the Confederates buried in Old Bayview as compiled from the memory of some of the early historians who sought to bring some order to the lists of those buried there. The only "M. Talbot" listed in Texas who might have been a Civil War vet was Matthew Talbot who lived in Matagorda County, Texas. He was from Georgia, married on 8 March 1831 to Harriet Sarah Gayle, and died on 1 October 1876. However, he is not mentioned as having been buried in Old Bayview. While there is a "Mathew Talbot" who was an early settler of the Aransas area with Kinney in the late 1830s and early 1840s, it seems that this is probably the same Matthew Talbot who then moved up the coast and was more associated with Matagorda County. It seems most likely that he would be buried in that County where the remains of many of his relatives can be found. On the other hand, there clearly was a "Talbott" family buried in Old Bayview and most likely the patriarch of this family is the one actually intended in the listing. This is George Washington Talbott ("Talbott" in his obituary) who was indeed originally buried in Old Bayview along with Arthur. Arthur appears to be the son of George and Eliza Talbott. He is listed in early death records of the city of Corpus Christi as dying on May 5, 1894 of typhoid fever (early records page 80). George was from Owensboro, Kentucky, born on March 22, 1844 according to his obituary (Corpus Christi Caller of 16 June 1905, page 5 col. 3). His birth date indicates he could easily have served in the Civil War. He and Eliza are found with a young son George B. (5 months old) in the 1870 census of Daviess County, Kentucky (page 273B). George is a wagoneer with a modest estate valued at $400. He moved from Comanche, Texas to Corpus Christi with his wife Eliza and children about 1891 as part of the Ropes Boom. George died suddenly while in San Antonio on business, and his remains were brought back to Corpus Christi for burial in Old Bayview. However, when Rose Hill Cemetery was established in 1914 as a privately owned cemetery with perpetual care, his widow had the bodies of George and Arthur exhumed and transferred to the new cemetery. George's widow Eliza "Talbot" (in her obituary) died at 92 years old in the family home at 1523 Chaparral where she had lived with her family because she was blind for the last 8 years of her life. She was survived by a son Richard L. Talbot of Mineola and three daughters. These daughters (and their spouses in the case of the two married daughters) are all buried with George, Eliza, and Arthur Talbott in a large plot with no stone in Rose Hill Cemetery. Moreover, all the daughters died while occupying the family home at 1523 N. Chaparral Street. Daisy (Mrs. John Davis) was buried in Rose Hill on October 23, 1949. Hallie Belle (Mrs. James Josiah Patrick) was buried on July 30, 1968. Miss Minnie Talbott (who never married, but cared for her mother and siblings) was buried on July 8, 1962. The only Talbott girl with descendents was Daisy Talbott-Davis who was survived by sons John T. Davis (with the FBI in Philadelphia, PA) and Richard L. Davis (who was in college at the time of his mother's death).
Research and transcription: Michael A. Howell