Founding Families
Ebenezer West | Waite Carr West | Increase Jones | Hannah Bowen Jones | William Hill | Elizabeth Hill
Edward Talbot | Sarah "Sally" Martin Talbot | Absalom P Morse | Lydia Tallman Morse
Alfred P White | Huldah Symonds White | Robert Shaw | Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw
Ebenezer West | Waite Carr West | Increase Jones | Hannah Bowen Jones | William Hill | Elizabeth Hill
Edward Talbot | Sarah "Sally" Martin Talbot | Absalom P Morse | Lydia Tallman Morse
Alfred P White | Huldah Symonds White | Robert Shaw | Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw
Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw 1787 – June 1, 1868
Early Life in Ireland
 Illustrative sepia sketch representing Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw (1787–1868), an Irish-born immigrant who settled in Olmstedville in the Town of Minerva. No known portrait of Jane Talbot survives.
Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw arrived in Minerva as a young widow around 1810, accompanying her older brother, Edward Talbot.
Born in 1787 in Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland, Jane’s life was both long and marked by early sorrow. At just seventeen years of age, she married a Mr. Stiles in Templemore, Tipperary. Records indicate that the marriage produced one child, a daughter. Less than two years later, tragedy struck when her husband died after being thrown from a horse. Opportunities for single women were limited in the early nineteenth century. For widows with children, they were even scarcer. We do not know what financial position her husband left her in, but we do know that she chose to emigrate with her family to America in 1807 Arrival in AmericaThe Talbot family arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, around 1808 and established a clothier enterprise, a trade in which they were well skilled. Jane and her brother Edward, both raised within that industry in Ireland, remained in Cambridge for approximately two years assisting in the business.
Family records indicate that Jane’s young daughter accompanied her to America. However, no records have been found that place the child in Minerva. Whether she remained with relatives elsewhere, died young, or was separated from the family during the difficult years surrounding emigration remains unknown. By the time Jane arrived in Minerva, there is no further mention of the child in surviving records. Life in the Talbot HouseholdIn 1810, Edward moved his family to Minerva, where he built a home that served not only as a residence but also as an inn, tavern, post office, and weaving household with at least one loom. Jane accompanied him to the Adirondack settlement. She was twenty-three years old.
In Minerva’s earliest years, Jane would likely have been essential to the Talbot household. Work in the inn and tavern, assistance in weaving, and the daily labor required in a frontier settlement would have made her a steady and valuable contributor to her brother’s enterprise. Marriage to Robert ShawJane remained in her brother’s household until 1818 when she married Robert Shaw. Robert emigrated to Minerva in 1816. It was a destination he had decided upon during his passage from Scotland to the United States. He had no plans for his future in America; he had been recently widowed himself and was looking for a new start.
It would make perfect sense that upon arriving in Minerva, he would have stayed at the Talbot Inn. Jane and Robert would have met there. They would have shared life stories, found common ground in their widowed status, their decision to cross an ocean for a new start, and perhaps an understanding that life was moving forward whether they were ready or not. Jane was twenty-nine when they met. At a young age she had already endured loss, migration, and increased responsibility. Her options were limited; marriage would have been the sensible choice. It is somewhat surprising that she had not yet remarried, choosing instead to remain in Edward’s household. By all accounts, she was an independent woman by this stage in her life, willing to make choices on her own terms. A Family in MinervaJane and Robert married in 1818 and began their life together in Minerva. They settled in the home Robert built for her just outside the hamlet of Olmstedville, along what is now County Route 29 heading toward Pottersville.
Jane and Robert welcomed five children during their years together:
Widowhood AgainSadly, Jane became a widow for a second time when Robert passed away on November 27, 1845, at the age of sixty-nine. Jane was fifty-eight when he died, and their youngest child was only nine years old.
In a letter written at the age of ninety-seven, Elizabeth (Bessie) Talbot Sullivan, great-granddaughter of Robert and Jane, recalled stories handed down through the family. She described how Robert constructed a separate building on the property where he installed a loom and operated a weaving business. The family also raised their own sheep, using the wool in the making of cloth. Bessie recalled that her grandmother still possessed a blanket woven by Jane or Robert, and that her father, Edward Talbot, owned a woolen suit made from cloth woven in their household. Later YearsAt some point later in life, Jane moved in with her son Thomas. According to Bessie, she was not an easy person to live with. Jane maintained very formal English manners, refused to dine at the same table as hired help, and even took snuff.
Jane died in 1868 at the age of eighty-one. Thomas would have been forty-six at the time, and he and his wife, Cornelia Drucilla Bishop, had at least three children still living at home during the years Jane resided with them. Jane’s life ended in Minerva much as it had begun, as a widow. She and Robert are buried in the Federal Flats Cemetery in Olmstedville, their headstones remaining as a testament to their lives. |
Historical Record:
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Sources
- Genealogical records and documentation can be viewed in the author's public research tree for Jane Talbot Stiles Shaw
- Hazel Talbot, Family of William Talbot, genealogical manuscript, p. 122.
- John C. LaPiana, Edward/William Talbot of Cambridge, New York: With Allied Lines of Seeley, Scofield, Nye, and Van Vranken (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1987).
- Accessed 3/12/2026 at https://archive.org/details/edwardwilliamtal00lapi/page/12/mode/2up
- Minerva Historical Society Archives.
- Minerva Town Historian Archives
