state Republican Party's fractures on domestic affairs like prohibition. Talbot refused to run in 1875. In 1878, Talbot won nomination as the Republican candidate for governor, in a large field occasioned by the impending retirement of Alexander H. Rice. The Democratic opposition was divided by Benjamin Butler's return to that party, and the Republican ticket won the general election, in part by highlighting the wage and benefit differences in mills owned by Butler and Talbot. The campaign was particularly vicious, with Republicans attacking Butler supporters as "Repudiationists, Greenbackers, and Communists". Talbot served one term, and refused to run for reelection the following year. He supported women's suffrage and prison reform, and stronger state control over its railroads. After leaving office, Talbot continued in public service, serving on the Health Committee of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity from 1880–1884, holding the chair of the committee in 1880–1882. As governor, Talbot had overseen the merger of the Board of Health, with the Board of Lunacy and Charity. Although this merger had been done ostensibly as a cost-saving measure, health care activists opposed it. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, in particular, resigned from the merged board, complaining that it was dominated by business owners seeking to minimize discussion of pollution caused by their businesses. Family and legacy Talbot married twice. In 1848, he married Mary Howe Rogers, who died childless in 1851. In 1855, he married Isabella Hayden, daughter of Joel Hayden of Williamsburg, with whom he had seven children. He died at his North Billerica home in 1885, and was interred in Lowell Cemetery. In 1905, the town of Billerica opened the Thomas T. Talbot Elementary School on 33 Talbot Avenue. The school would serve grades 1 through 6, until the 1972 when the 6th grade was migrated to the new middle school. The school continued to educate grades 1 through 5 until it closed in June 1980. It was renovated and reopened as the Talbot School Apartments that serves the elderly and disabled. The surviving Talbot Mill properties in North Billerica are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Billerica Mills Historic District. Notes References Republican Party governors of Massachusetts Lieutenant Governors of Massachusetts 1818 births 1885 deaths People from Cambridge, New York People from Williamsburg, Massachusetts People from Billerica, Massachusetts Members of the Massachusetts Governor's Council 19th-century American politicians Businesspeople from Massachusetts American