Josiah Warren “Shout” Talbot (1812-1897)
Mary Bigelow Talbot (1820-1888)
Josiah Warren “Shout” Talbot was a very interesting personality. The master of the South Dedham school in 1836, he was the son of Josiah and Mary Richards Talbot and was educated in the schools of Sharon and “various Academies.” He studied for the ministry and was ordained by the Boston Association of Universalists in 1836.
He was married to Mary L. Bigelow, from Boxboro, Massachusetts, in 1838. She was the sister of L. W. Bigelow, the Village Hall dry goods merchant of South Dedham. Josiah and Mary Talbot had seven children: Josephine, Emma, Mary, Warren, Waldo, Emma Frances, and Mary Jane.
It is believed that five of the children died young. Josephine was born on March 10, 1840 and died on March 23, 1845. Emma was born in 1842 and Mary, in 1844; there is no information on these two girls but, given the family named two other daughters Emma and Mary Jane, it is believed they too died at a young age. Warren Melville Talbot was born on February 9, 1846 and died on September 22 the same year. Waldo Murray Talbot was born on October 31, 1847 and died on May 10, 1854; he was the couple’s only child when the 1850 Census was taken.
In 1850, the family was living in Melrose where Josiah was a universalist minister. By1860, the Talbots had bought the former Lewis Rhodes farm on Centre Street (Washington Street), South Dedham, There Josiah Talbot researched pomology (apple breeding) and studied varied subjects and popular sciences, such as phrenology, a theory linking personality traits to head and skull shape. Talbot became in turn, a minister, orator, apple and grape expert, and general horticulturist. He was also a spring-bed manufacturer, and a photographer.
Josiah Warren Talbot was a respected teacher and minister and citizen of South Dedham. In 1872, he was chosen to present the petition for separating South Dedham from Dedham to the Massachusetts Legislature. He gained the nickname “Shout” after he lost the hearing in one ear after being struck by lightning as a child. Apparently, people had to “shout” for him to hear them.
Mary L. Bigelow Talbot died on March 29, 1888. She was interred in Highland Cemetery in lot 84. On September 5, 1893, she was removed to lot 139 in Highland. Josiah Warren Talbot died on March 26, 1897 of heart disease. Engraved on the unusual gravestone are the names of Josiah Warren Talbot, his wife Mary L. Bigelow Talbot, and three of their children: Josephine, Warren and Waldo. Neither the Old Parish nor the Highland Cemetery records show the interment of the three children. They may have been interred elsewhere and the family simply added their names to this stone.
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