Ebenezer Fisher Talbot (1814-1882)
Elizabeth Farrington Talbot (1817-1895)
E. Fisher Talbot was born in 1814 and died on June 9, 1882 of heart disease at the age of 68. His wife, Elizabeth Farrington Talbot was born in 1817 and died on February 15, 1895 of pneumonia. The couple lost four young children between 1845 and 1860:
Mary Elizabeth on June 3, 1845 at 8 years old,
Josiah Fisher on August 28, 1847 at 10 weeks old,
Sarah Amanda on December 21, 1855 at 1 year old, and
Eugene on January 16, 1860.
Their sole surviving son, Samuel R. Talbot died in 1878 at the age of 24, of diabetes mellitus, a disease for which there was no cure or even treatment at that time.
Talbot was a well-known businessman in South Dedham. He began to manufacture oil cloth around 1850 and a few years later he had established the Carpet Works on Railroad Avenue for printing floor and carriage oil-cloths. A disgruntled employee burned the business along with Talbot’s home; both were rebuilt in 1860 only to have a second, accidental, fire destroy both yet again. His South Dedham neighbors helped Talbot build a third factory and home on Washington Street property owned by his brother, George.
E. F. Talbot continued to produce carpet cloth until his death in 1882, after which the business was taken over by E. E. Pratt & Son, an enterprise that employed twenty men and produced 180,000 yards of carpeting annually.
Ebenezer Fisher Talbot’s final Norwood house still stands at 465 Washington Street, most of its fine architectural features hidden behind siding.
