William Morrison Tallman

William Morrison Tallman is famous in Janesville as the original owner of the house that is now known as the Lincoln-Tallman House on North Jackson Street.

Mr. Tallman was a lawyer and a land speculator who bought and sold land to make money. He was also an abolitionist during the Civil War. An abolitionist believed in freeing the slaves.

The construction of the Tallman House was begun in 1855 and completed in 1857. It is four stories tall, including the cupola (observation tower) at the top. It was the largest house built in Janesville before the Civil War and has twenty rooms. The house cost about forty-two thousand dollars to build. In 1971, that cost would have equaled about five hundred thousand dollars.

The house is described as an Italian villa. It has ornate decorations, marble fireplaces, and an oval opening in the front hall ceiling. The heating and water systems were considered very modern for those days.

Because Mr. Tallman was an abolitionist, many people believed for years that the Tallman House was a part of the Underground Railroad that hid escaping slaves who were traveling north to freedom. There is no proof at this time that the Tallmans were involved in the Underground Railroad in Janesville, and no mention is made of this when you visit the house today.

While Abraham Lincoln was campaigning to become the U.S. President, he stayed at the Tallman House with the Tallman family. This happened on October 1-2, 1859.

William Morrison Tallman died in 1878. His older son William Henry Tallman was in the perfume business and lived on Academy street. His young son, Edgar and his family continued to live in the house until 1951. No one lived in the house after that. George Tallman, a grandson of William Morrison Tallman donated the house to the city of Janesville in 1950. It was restored and opened as a museum in 1951. In 1995 a major restoration project was completed in an effort to make the house appear as it did when it was first built.