Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 2. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 188.
 
GUY WEBSTER TALBOT

     Guy Webster Talbot, whose name is written large on the history of the
development of electrical industries, is now identified with various
corporations having control of electric railway, gas and power interests in the
northwest.  Originating plans for the establishment of business enterprises, he
has carried them forward to successful completion, his executive ability and
administrative direction being potent elements in their successful management.
Mr. Talbot came to the Pacific coast from the middle west, his birth having
occurred in Centerville, Michigan, on the 12th of August, 1873.  He comes of an
old New England family, being a grandson of John W. Talbot, who with his
brothers, the late Charles P. and Governor Thomas Talbot, of Lowell,
Massachusetts, built and operated the first woolen mills in Massachusetts at
Billerica.
     G. W. Talbot pursued his early education in the common schools of Des
Moines, Iowa, while spending his youthful days in the home of his parents,
Charles Robert and Sarah F. (Webster) Talbot.  He afterward attended college at
Emporia, Kansas, and crossed the threshold of business life as an employe in the
local freight office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company at Des
Moines.  Since that time he has been connected more or less closely with railway
interests, and each forward step in his career has marked the recognition of his
ability on the part of those whom he has represented.  For a time he served as
collector for the Des Moines Union Railway Company and later occupied clerkships
in various departments of the same company.  He was afterward ticket agent at
the Union depot at Des Moines, was traveling freight and passenger agent for the
Des Mines, Northern & Western Railway Company, was traveling freight agent for
the Iowa Central Railway Company at Marshalltown, Iowa, and was made general
traveling freight agent for the same company.  In 1901 he became traffic manager
for the Peoria & Pekin Terminal Railway Company at Peoria, Illinois, and later
was made general superintendent, then vice president and general manager of the
same line.
     In 1906 Mr. Talbot became vice president and general manager of the Astoria
& Columbia River Railroad Company and the Corvallis & Eastern Railroad Company,
with offices at Portland, Oregon.  In 1907 he was made vice president and
general manager of the Oregon Electric Railway Company and in 1910 became
president of the Pacific Power & Light Company and the Portland Gas & Coke
Company.  He has been active in formulating the business policy and directing
the interests of these different organizations, especially in his official
connection therewith.  In addition to his other interests he is the president of
the Walla Walla Valley Railway Company, vice president of the American Power &
Light Company of New York, and vice president of the Hanford Irrigation & Power
Company of Washington.  He has not only been greatly interested in the
development of electric business for commercial purposes in the northwest but
has been one of the prime movers in promoting activity along these lines, his
labors being resultant factors in thus advancing the business interests of this
section.  It was Mr. Talbot who carried into execution the Oregon Electric
Railway Company after its organization by eastern capitalists.
     On the 14th of October, 1903, in Kingman, Kansas, Mr. Talbot was united in
marriage to Miss Geraldine Wallace, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Morris
Wallace.  They have two children:  Sarah Jane Talbot, now five years of age; and
Prudence Gertrude.
     Mr. and Mrs. Talbot hold membership in the Episcopal church and he gives
his political allegiance to the republican party, being in hearty sympathy with
its principles as elements in good government.  He is widely known in the
leading social circles of this city, being a director and treasurer of the
Arlington club, a director of Waverly Golf Club, a member of the Meadow Lake
Club and a member of the Commercial Club of Portland.  As the architect of his
own fortune he has builded wisely and well, nor has his success ever been such
as to sacrifice other interests.  His efforts in business lines have largely
been of a constructive character, utilizing the natural resources of the
country, his advancement being largely due to his ability to recognize and
improve opportunities which others pass by heedlessly.  He has, moreover, the
ability to make others see the correctness of his position and to gather about
him an efficient corps of assistants.



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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2006 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.