John T. Talman Day Books

John Thurston Talman was born in Hudson, New York in 1795 and moved to Rochester about 1820. He soon entered the banking industry, first serving as cashier at the Bank of Rochester, then, from 1829 onwards, as cashier at the Bank of Monroe. He was also involved in the promotion of Rochester as an industrial center, and in numerous civic roles. These included appointment as a notary public (1832), serving as a trustee of the Rochester Female Academy (1842) and election as a trustee for school district #3 (1846). Talman was a member of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, where he was elected as a vestryman in 1844. He passed away on February 12, 1850.

John Talman married Mary Elizabeth Fitzhugh in 1831. They had 8 children together, four of whom survived to adulthood. She outlived him by many years, passing away on November 4, 1892. It was through his wife that Talman came into possession of the property at numbers 21-25 Buffalo Street (now East Main Street) that bears his name to this day. This property, part of the 100 Acre Tract, was deeded to William Fitzhugh by Nathaniel Rochester and Charles Carroll in 1817, and the title passed to his daughter, Mary Elizabeth, upon his death in 1839. Commercial buildings already stood on the property (united into one structure at some time between the 1820s and 1840s), and Talman's name would soon became attached to the building. The lower floors housed retail establishments, while the upper floors were shared by several area newspapers, including the Rochester Daily Observer, American Rural Home, Evening Express - and the newspaper for which the building is best known, Frederick Douglass' North Star.