William Wilson Talcott
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William Wilson Talcott | |
|---|---|
 William Wilson Talcott, 1901 | |
| Born | December 4, 1878 |
| Died | August 24, 1922 (aged 43) |
| Body discovered | August 30, 1922 |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Known for | Football player, teacher, newspaper publisher, manufacturer |
| Spouse |
Shirley J. Patterson
(m. 1904) |
| Children | 1 |
William Wilson Talcott (December 4, 1878 – August 24, 1922) was an American football player, school teacher, newspaper publisher, and ice cream manufacturer.
Talcott played college football for the University of Michigan in 1897 and 1898 and was the starting quarterback for the undefeated 1898 Michigan Wolverines football team. After graduating from Michigan, he worked as a school teacher in Illinois and Michigan.
He entered the newspaper publishing business in 1905 and published The Englewood Economist from September 1906 to January 1918. From 1918 to 1920, he was the business manager of the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune. He later went into the ice cream business in Chicago.
In August 1922, Talcott led a legal battle with the head of a so-called "love cult" with which his wife had become involved. The legal battle received national newspaper coverage. When his wife refused to part ways with the cult, Talcott committed suicide by jumping from an excursion boat off the shore of Chicago with rocks in his pockets.[1]
Talcott was born in December 1878 in Valparaiso, Indiana.[2] He was the second of five children of Charles Ransom Talcott and Harriet E. Malone, who were married in October 1873.[3] His father was a native of Valparaiso who began his career as a school teacher. From 1874 to 1886, his father was the publisher of the Porter County Vidette, a local newspaper in Valparaiso.[3]
In August 1886, when Talcott was seven years old, the family moved to Chicago where his father worked for many years at the Western Publishing House.[3] After the family's move to Chicago, Talcott grew up in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.[4] He attended the public schools in Englewood and graduated from Englewood High School.[4]
As a senior in the fall of 1896, Talcott was captain and quarterback of the Englewood High School football team. In September 1896, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "Englewood has always come into the field with a team of strong and heavy men. This year's team will be no exception to the rule ... Talcott, quarter back, is Captain, and he has all of last year's line men to work with."[5] The 1896 Englewood team, led by Talcott and end Clayton Teetzel, won the Cook County football championship. The season ended with a 38–6 victory over Hyde Park, which was described in the Englewood High School newspaper as follows: "The final game with Hyde Park ... was the greatest of all. To defeat our ancient rivals was the happiest ambition of the team. The defeat of '95 still rankles in the breasts of seven of the team, and they were determined to do or die. 'It was a glorious victory,' the score being 38 to 6, when time was called because of darkness with ten minutes yet to play."[6]
University of Michigan
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In the fall of 1897, Talcott and his Englewood teammate Clayton Teetzel enrolled at the University of Michigan as students in the Literary Department.[7] During Talcott's freshman year, he played as a backup quarterback for the 1897 Michigan Wolverines football team.[8] He also joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity in 1897. In its annual publication, The Shield, the fraternity reported that the Michigan chapter was "proud" in having Talcott play "quarter in a number of the games."[9]
As a sophomore, Talcott was the starting quarterback in six of ten games for the undefeated 1898 Michigan football team that won the school's first Western Conference (as the Big Ten was then known) championship and prompted Louis Elbel to compose Michigan's fight song, "The Victors."[10] In the early days of football, players were required to play on both offense and defense. On defense, Talcott was a linebacker.[11] Blocking was known at the time as "interference," and after a 23–0 victory over Notre Dame in October 1898, The Michigan Alumnus wrote that "Talcott shone in the interference."[12]
During his junior year, Talcott did not return to the varsity football team, and was instead the captain of the junior class football team.[13] As a senior in the fall of 1900, Talcott was an assistant coach under Langdon Lea for Michigan's varsity football team, "winning quite a reputation for himself in that line."[14][15] Talcott also served as the Chairman of the Senior Literary Social Committee.[13] He graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1901.[16]
Teaching
After graduating from Michigan, Talcott became a school teacher. In 1902, he was a teacher at a school in Chicago.[16] In early 1904, Talcott wrote a letter to the secretary of his graduating class at Michigan, informing his former classmates that he was the principal of the high school in Bessemer, Michigan. In his letter, Talcott noted that he had "fully decided to make teaching his life work" and "expressed his belief that participation in athletics and other activities of student life, as supplementary to the work of class-room, and library, and laboratory, might form a very valuable part of the preparation of the teacher, in giving self-control, confidence, and knowledge of human nature."[17]
On August 24, 1904, Talcott married Shirley J. Patterson, at Jackson, Michigan. They listed their address at the time as Hurley, Wisconsin, a city located a short distance across the border from Bessemer, Michigan.[18][19]
Newspaper publishing
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In approximately 1905, Talcott followed his father into the newspaper publishing business. He began his publishing career with the Englewood News, serving the Englewood section of Chicago.[4] In September 1906, Talcott and his younger brother, James Richard Talcott, founded The Englewood Economist, a weekly newspaper serving the Englewood community. The first edition was four pages and included the following statement of goals:
This paper ventures to present itself for the approval of the entire district west of Wallace street and south of Garfield Boulevard. Fifteen thousand copies will be distributed each week by a select body of carriers ... The business interests have for years needed such a medium as The Economist will be, as is shown by the readiness with which many concerns, both large and small, have entered into the plan. Besides giving space to important local items The Englewood Economist will, each issue, contain short articles on interesting incidents of the day, occasionally a short story, and always bits of wit and humor. In a word it will be the aim of the paper to afford this rapidly growing section a means of self-expression and cause people to await its delivery anxiously ...[20]
The paper's circulation grew to 138,750 by 1922.[21] Though its name was later changed to the Southtown Economist, the newspaper founded by the Talcott brothers was still publishing 100 years later.[22]
By 1912, James Talcott had left The Englewood Economist and moved to Kansas City, Missouri.[3] In 1918, Talcott sold the newspaper to Foster & McDonnell, who published the Auburn Park Community Booster and the West Englewood Telegram.[21]
In August 1918, Talcott moved to Paris, France, as the business manager of the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune.[4] At the time of his departure, the new owners of The Englewood Economist wrote, "By training and experience Mr. Talcott is exceptionally well fitted for the duties he is about to assume and he leaves with the felicitations for success of a host of friends and acquaintances throughout Chicago."[4] He was joined in Paris by his family in the summer of 1919 and returned to Chicago in March 1920.[23] Talcott and his wife had three children.[24]
In late February 1920, he wrote in a postcard to The Englewood Economist: "We are spending a few days in Switzerland, Southern France and Italy before sailing March 6th from Naples. Will see you before April 1st. Give my best to all the folks."[23] After returning from Europe, Talcott published editorials in The Englewood Economist strongly supporting approval for the League of Nations.[25][26]
