A.A. Talmadge

Who was A.A. Talmadge?

A. A. Talmadge, born Archibald Alexander Talmadge, was a 19th-century vice-president and general manager of the Wabash Railroad. Born in Warren County, New Jersey of Scotch descent, his father was a Presbyterian minister. He worked in a country store in Goshen, New York for several years beginning when he was fifteen. At the age of eighteen, Talmadge was appointed clerk in the freight department of the New York and Erie Railroad, where he remained for a year. He worked for a hardware wholesale firm on Dey Street in New York City afterward. During the winter of 1854, Talmadge moved to Chicago, Illinois where he found employment as a clerk in the freight department of the Michigan Southern Railroad.