.JPG)
Tallman Jacob Trask was born 1852 in Vassalboro, Maine, one
of eleven children born to William Chase Trask and his second wife, Sophia
Winslow. By 1860, the Trask family had moved to Concord, Illinois.
When he was 17, Tallman, or T. J. as he was known, went to
work for Abel Gum as a clerk in Gum’s dry goods store. T.J. roomed
with the Gum family while he learned the ins-and-outs of the mercantile trade.
Around 1876, young Trask traveled west to Pueblo, Colorado,
where he became the head clerk in the grocery store of John D. Miller.. It
was there that he met Laura E. Cooper, whom he married in July of 1877. The
couple had two children born between 1878 and 1879, but both died in infancy
and were buried in the Odd Fellows section of the Pueblo Pioneer Cemetery.
In 1879, T. J and Laura moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to
start a new store with Lyman Putney, a business man from Lawrence, Kansas. The
store, which specialized in wholesale groceries and exotic fruits from
California, was located in downtown Albuquerque on Railroad Avenue, opposite
the train depot.
T.J. and Laura had a tumultuous relationship, with Laura
spending much of her time with her family in Pueblo and Kansas. In
the spring of 1884, T. J. filed for divorce on the grounds of desertion. It
was granted in October of 1884. In December of 1884, he married
Lizzie Strother of Ohio, thought by some to have been “an adventuress”. T.
J. dissolved his business interests with his partner Lyman Putney and moved to
Phoenix, Arizona, where he opened a store with his new brother-in-law, Emory
Kays.
Still later, in 1892, T.J. opened another store with Charles
Kessler and T.J’s brother Alonzo. Located on Washington between modern-day
Central Ave and 1st Avenue in Phoenix, the Trask-Kessler wholesale grocery
soon became one of the largest grocery stores in town.
As he prospered, T.J. took on many civic duties, becoming
president of the Arizona Industrial Exposition Association and territorial
fair. His most notable exhibits were a pagoda made from grains grown
on his farm, and a display of hanging tea cups and saucers from his wholesale
grocery store that spelled “Trask-Kessler”. He also served as
president of the Immigration Union, vice president of the Business Chamber of
Commerce in Phoenix, and was on the board of the Phoenix and Prescott Toll Road
Company.
T. J. died on December 8, 1894, from an intestinal ailment
which he had fought for eight months. He was laid to rest in Porter cemetery.
His headstone is of an unusual Moorish design and describes him as an “upright
businessman”.
-by Val Wilson
No comments:
Post a Comment