John M. Turner

JOHN M. TURNER.

This brief biography has to do with a character of unusual force and eminence, for John-M. Turner has been for a long lapse of years one of the leading agriculturists and prominent citizens of Wayne township, Randolph county, having grown up in this locality amid pioneer environment, and here he has been content to spend his life and assist in every way possible in bringing about the transformation of the country from the wild condition found by the early settlers to its later day progress and improvement, and all who know him well will readily agree that his more than three-score and ten years have not been spent in vain.

Mr. Turner was born near Winchester, Randolph county, September 14, 1840. He is a son of William Turner, a native of Virginia, from which state he came to Randolph county when a young man and bought a farm and became one of the prosperous general farmers and stock raisers of his community. He also dealt quite heavily in real estate. He built many business blocks and residences in Union City, and here he erected the first opera house at the corner of Oak and Howard streets. He was an influential man in the city and township in his day and generation and did much for the general upbuilding of the same. Politically he was a Republican and in religious matters belonged to the Christian church.

John M. Turner grew to manhood on the home farm and there worked when a boy. He attended the common schools in his neighborhood. He remained with his parents on the farm until he was twenty-one years of age, then began working on the home farm with an interest in the crops, remaining there until 1861 when he proved his patriotism and courage by enlisting for service in the Federal army, Company H, Eighty-fourth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in which he served one year, then returned home and resumed farming on the home place, with an interest in the crops there, and he also looked after a farm of one hundred and sixty acres of his own, on which, after his marriage, he made a home for himself and wife. He has continued general agricultural and stock raising pursuits and by his good management, thrift and persistency he has become one of the substantial men of his town- 'Z ship and the owner of about seven hundred acres of valuable land which he has placed under modern improvements and a high state of cultivation, farming on a very extensive scale. He is a heavy stockholder in the Union Loan & Trust Company of Union City and is a director in the same. He was elected president of this company May i, 1913, and is discharging the important-duties of the same in a manner that reflects much credit upon himself and to the eminent satisfaction of the stockholders and all concerned and is making a great success. He is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished, having begun at the bottom of the industrial ladder and worked his way upward without assistance, making his fortune himself and by honorable methods. He is a man of progressive ideas, rare business acumen and sound judgment. He is charitably inclined and has been of great assistance to many poor people of his community, helping young men to get properly started in business, but being conservative no one ever years him tell of such deeds.

Mr. Turner was married, first, in June, 1864, to Mary Jane Hartman, who was born in Wayne township, Randolph county, January 13, 1844. She was a daughter of John Hartman, whose death occurred many years ago. To our subject and his first wife the following children were born: Efifiie B. first married a Mr. Armacost, later John M. Shockney; Loftus Orville married MoUie Smith; Minnie Alta married and died some time ago; Margaret 1-ene married Ernest Thornburg. The mother of the above named children pas ied to her eternal rest March 9, 1879. Mr. Turner married Nancy Eveline Hinshaw in 1881. She w-as born August 25, 1856. She is a daughter of Silas Hinshaw, long since deceased. To our subject and his last wife these children have been born: Mary Jane married Stanley Bortner; John, W. married Garnett Watson; Ada Garfield; Goldie and Silas Lester are at home, also Walter McKinley, the youngest of the children.

Mr. Turner has always been an ardent Republican, and has been more or less active in party affairs. In the election of 1912 he was committeeman of Bartonia, a precinct which remained loyal to the "grand old party," standing forty-one to fourteen for Taft. Mr. Turner has been township trustee for two years. He was elected county treasurer of Randolph county in 1887, serving one term. As a public servant he has ever been most faithful and given satisfaction to his constituents. He is a quiet, unpretentious gentleman, kind and generous to the poor and needy, not forgetting the time when he was one of their number himself, and he has every sympathy for the worthy of that class.

As printed in Past and present of Randolph County, Indiana : with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families (1914). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.