Thomas Talbot was the 31st Governor of Massachusetts, and a major textile manufacturer in Billerica, Massachusetts.
Background
Thomas Talbot was born on September 7, 1818 in Cambridge, New York to Charles and Phoebe (White) Talbot. His father, a wealthy textile manufacturer, died when he was six, and his mother moved the family to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he attended local schools.
Career
The business started out processing dyewoods for use in the textile industry, but expanded into other industrial chemical processing in 1849. Thomas focused on the textile business while Charles continued to manage the dye and chemical interests, expanding the facilities in 1870 and again in 1880. The mill site in Billerica was not without some controversy.
The dam, which had been constructed in the 1790s to provide water for the Middlesex Canal, was believed by some to be responsible for the flooding of fields upstream as far as Sudbury.
There were calls to remove the dam, which Talbot vigorously resisted. The dispute was partly played out in the state legislature, and brought Talbot to the attention of political leaders as a potential candidate for office.
Talbot, a Republican, served in the Massachusetts legislature beginning in 1851, and sat in the governor"s council from 1864 to 1869. In 1872 he was chosen lieutenant-governor, serving two terms under William B. Washburn.
On the election of Governor Washburn to the United States Senate in early 1874, he became acting governor.
One item of unfinished business Washburn left to Talbot was a bill mandating a ten-hour workday. This matter had been the subject of labor agitation in the state, and Washburn had been opposed to the bill. Talbot, despite his mill ownership, was an advocate, and signed the bill into law.
During this term he vetoed a bill that would have disbanded the state police, which were charged with the law"s enforcement, and also vetoed a bill replacing prohibition with a licensing scheme.
In the 1874 election anti-prohibition Republicans joined with Democrats to elect William Gaston over Talbot by a narrow margin. The election marked a watershed in post-Civil War Massachusetts, since it was the first victory for a Democrat in that period, and exposed the Republican Party"s fractured state on domestic affairs like prohibition.
Talbot refused to run in 1875. Talbot served one term, and refused to run for reelection the following year.
He died in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1885.
The Talbot Mill properties in North Billerica are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Billerica Mills Historic District. Talbot married twice.
Politics
The state"s liquor prohibition law was a major political issues at the time, and Talbot was a strict prohibitionist. The Democratic opposition was divided by Benjamin Butler"s return to that party, and the Republican ticket won the general election, in part by highlighting the wage and benefit differences in mills owned by Butler and Talbot.