*This story of the Talkingtons was provided to me by a "Cuzzin". I have not verified any of the information. I present it to you for your consideration.

TALKINGTONS

John Talkington is said to have migrated to the continent from England prior to the Revolutionary War. (Records appear of a Stephen Talkington on the rolls of the French & Indian war as early as the 1740’s, as a resident of PA, a cooper.)

John is recorded in PA in Sept of 1796. At the time of the birth of his son, Jesse, John is listed on Washington twp taxable files for Indiana Co., 1807, and is listed as a shoemaker.

He had 3 brothers, Jesse, Stephen and Joseph. He and at least two of these brothers are supposed to have fought in the Revolutionary War. A Stephen Talkington took out a land grant in KY in 1816. He had 11 children, 2 of which were girls, but all existing records account for only 10 of these children.

Tradition: John Talkington’s wife, Sarah Thatcher, was a descendant of John Alden-Priscilla Moline’s union.

William Talkington Sr. Was born in Wheatfield Twp, Indiana County, PA in 1787. He had two sisters (Names unknown) and 8 brothers, Stephen, John, George, David, Jacob, James, Granville & Jesse. (At age 18, Jesse was sent to the mill by his father to get a grist of meal and took some corn on a packhorse. On the way he met a recruiter drumming up men for the war of 1812 and enlisted on the spot, but his father later secured his release from service on the grounds that he was too young and was needed at home.)

In 1814, Jesse and brother William left PA on a flat boat carrying also the Elkins family who were their neighbors in PA. They floated down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, OH and on the way the two boys fell in love with two of the Elkins daughters. Jesse married Sarah Elkins (supposed to be Irish) on March 31, 1814. They later settled in Butler County, OH, for some time, then they moved to Decatur County, IN and entered on a quarter section of land where the Town of Alert now stands. After residing there two years, he obtained a deed signed by President Van Buren in 1836. He remarried after the death of Sarah to Catherine Chrisman (of Holland) and they had 17 children. He died 18 Feb 1860 and is buried in Wesley Chapel Cemetary in Jackson Twp., IN.

Jesse is described as 6 ft tall, weighing 160 pounds, dark complexion, black hair, gray eyes.

Information on William and Jesse and their ancestors and descendants mostly obtained from a descendant of Jesse’s

William T. Jr., and Wilson W. Were some of Jesse Talkington’s sons. William was born Mar 2 in Napoleon, Rippley Co., IN. He was the brother known as "Hummer Bill" and his brother Wilson as "Whiteeyed Bill". William was tall and rangy in build and was considered a highly successful farmer in as much as he owned his own threshing machine and threshed for himself and neighbors.

His own family consisted of Jesse, Francis, Margery (Keeley) and Becky (Stephenson). He died 16 Oct 1922 and is buried in the Wesley Chapel Cemetary in Jackson Twp, IN.

Wilson W., born 25 Dec 1866 was married in Sardinia, IN on 17 Sep 1887 and lived with his wife’s aunt, Jane Fisher ‘til after the birth of their first child. Then, as the press of neighbors built up and free land was offered farther west, he and his family went by wagon to the territory of the Sioux Indian Reservation and he became a livestock broker in Sioux City, IA. Again, as the area became populous, he moved to Bloomfield, NE and continued the same sort of business. For the same reasons he moved a last time into Custer Co., MT. And took up homestead rights on an acreage there in 1910.

His immediate family consisted of Margery Ann, Elizabeth Ella, Inez Maude, Thomas A., Louisa B., and Willard. Margery married an Evans, Elizabeth married a Moore, Inez married a Hendricks. He was fairly tall with blue eyes, medium fair features, and possessed a keen sense of humor. He made his income from a combined farming and stock raising operation on the Montana plains near the edge of the Badlands, not far from Ekalaka, MT.

He displayed the hospitality and geniality that is attributed to such living in that area of stockmen, cowboys, drifting riders and bad men to a very high degree. He died 25 Jan 1941, still possessed of these attributes.

His daughter Buelah married Ellery Sills. They had a son named William Sills who furnished this genealogy and others on the Talkington - Torkington
family.