The Will of James Turner

Will of James Turner of Anson County, dated April of 1843. NC Archives.

Going on two hints, or pieces of information, in my search for the origins of my 3rd Great Grandfather, George Washington Turner, I found a possible link to a James Turner, who was alive in 1840,and living near the Rev. Uriah Staton, and not alive in 1850.

I knew the Rev. Staton was a very important clue in my search, as he had deep ties to Rocky River Baptist Church, and was credited with having founded Red Hill Baptist Church. Red Hill Baptist Church is the church that George Washington Turner attended and was buriedat. He had  served as a delegate from the church at conventions,  and also served as a deacon of the Red Hill, as well as many other roles, according to the old records of the church.

Rev. Staton was also closely tied to the Rev. Samuel P. Morton, sort of an anchor to his kayak, who was father-in-law of G. W. Turner, and my ancestor, then, as well.

My cellphone photo from May 2019 of Red Hill Baptist Church

My other clue was the 1880 census, when the mother of G. W. Turner had come to live with him, and her name was Mary.  I found Mary and Washington in the 1850 census. Also in the home was a Martha, not far in age from Mary.

Name:	Mary Turner
Age:	34
Birth Year:	abt 1816
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Cedar Hill, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Gender:	Female
Family Number:	666
Household Members:	Name Age Martha Turner 32 Mary Turner 34 Washington Turner 16

Right below Martha and Mary Turner, in the very next homestead, is a young couple, Thomas and Chloa Martin Turner. Chloa is the daughter of John Martin, whose name keeps popping up as a neighbor of the Turners, as a witness on the will of James Turner (d 1843) and in land records.

James Turner in the 1840 census, family make up is below.

Name:	James Turner
Home in 1840 (City, County, State):	Anson, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9:	1 George Washington Turner
Free White Persons - Females - 30 thru 39:	2 Mary and Martha
Free White Persons - Females - 70 thru 79:	1 Probably mistake, has to be James, male
Slaves - Males - Under 10:	1
Slaves - Males - 10 thru 23:	2
Slaves - Females - 10 thru 23:	1
Slaves - Females - 36 thru 54:	1
Persons Employed in Agriculture:	5
No. White Persons over 20 Who Cannot Read and Write:	3
Free White Persons - Under 20:	1
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:	2
Total Free White Persons:	4
Total Slaves:	5
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves:	9

In the 1840 census, James Turner is listed right next to Uriah Staton, who was the minister that George Washington Turner purchased land from in 1872. There's a Richmond Turner nearby, and other familiar names.

The dash in the transcript must be an error. This is James, who was alive, his wife obviously long since passed, and his two single daughters and grandson, Washington living near him.

The Will of a James Turner, who died in 1843, gave me more clues. It's a bit hard to read, but below is my attempt to transcribe:

"State of N. Carolina 

Anson County

I make my true will in my perfect senses, 

1) I give my daughter Mary and my daughter Martha one hundred and sixty acres of land being my own property to be equally divided between Mary & Martha. After the decease of Mary, I want my Grandson Washington Turner to have the land I give to Mary my daughter. 

2) Also the great house and kitchen furniture to Mary and Martha.

3) Also eight head of cattle, twenty head of hogs and my black horse to be divided between Mary & Martha also ten head of sheep to be divided between the rest of my children Axum & Nancy & Mary & Susan & Sary & Martha & James & Lazarus. This is my true Will. April 18,  1843

James (X) Turner

his mark

Test

Reddick Drew

John (X) Martin

his mark

July Term 1843

Then the execution of the Will was duly proven in open court by John Martin, one of the transcribing witnesses and ordered to by registered. N. D. Boggan clk.

So, there again, is the name of John Martin, and a new name has been brought into the fold, and I will find, he is an important and interesting clue to follow as well, Reddick Drew. Knowing a tad bit about the history of Anson County, I knew that the clerk, N. D. Boggan, was none other than Norfleet Drew Boggan. As names usually were left like a trail of cookie crumbs to be followed if you were quick and 'fleet' enough, I wondered if there was a family connection between Reddick Drew and Norfleet Drew Boggan.

So now I am two more generations back. Mary, daughter of James, was the mother of G. W. Turner, and James was his grandfather. James also had 7 other children: Axum, Nancy, Susan, 'Sary' (probably Sarah), Martha, James and Lazarus.

I'd found Martha, at least, living with Mary, in 1850. The other names were so common, I may not be able to find them. Were Nancy, Susan and Sary married? He didn't say. And James? Needle in a haystack. But Axum and Lazarus? I could possibly have some luck there.

Ok, Grandpa, I'm one step closer to 'finding your roots'.

The Dove in the Red Bud Tree

Stock Photo-Dove in a Red Bird Tree

One cool and aromotised May morning, I was enjoying an early sunrise and pondering the next move in the search for George Washington Turner's origins. In a brightly purple Red Bud tree, a native weed of North Carolina, sat a plump, obtuse dove. She seemed to beckon in the dawn and even, the season. Not a needle in a haystack, but a pitchfork, with its long handle high in the air. He's easy to see, she seemed to hint, all you have to do is look.

"George" had never brought up anything but George Lilly Turner, son of Wilson P. Turner, who was a contemporary, and younger and NOT my George. Being born in 1835, my George would have been about 15 in the 1850 census, or close to it, as ages were never exact, but more approximate, in those days. And in his mid-twenties in 1860. He signed up for the Civil War in 1862 in Wadesboro, born in Anson County, so his most likely location would be in Anson County where he lived his later years from the end of the War onward.

Name:Mary Turner
Age:82
Birth Date:Abt 1798
Birthplace:North Carolina
Home in 1880:Ansonville, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Dwelling Number:67
Race:White
Gender:Female
Relation to Head of House:Mother
Marital status:Widowed
Father's Birthplace:North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace:North Carolina
Cannot Read:Yes
Cannot Write:Yes
Household Members:

Name	Age
G.W. Turner	45
E. Winey Turner	41
James S. Turner	21
Robert J. Turner	20
Joseph A. Turner	15
Mary E. Turner	13
Wm. A. Turner	11
Susan V. Turner	9
Ellison M. Turner	7
Sarah C. Turner	5
Louis A. Turner	3
Winey H. Turner	1
Mary Turner	82

From working with the census records for years, I knew ages, especially for women and especially for the elderly, were often incorrect, so I knew that Mary may not have been born in 1798. All she needed to be was old enough to be George's mother. The census tells us both she and her parents were born in North Carolina and that her marital status was widow.

Name:	Mary Turner
Age:	34
Birth Year:	abt 1816
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Cedar Hill, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Gender:	Female
Family Number:	666
Household Members:	Name Age Martha Turner 32 Mary Turner 34 Washington Turner 16

In 1850, I found a Mary Turner, 34, living with a Martha Turner, 32, and a 16 year old boy named Washington. Washington? Could George have went by his middle name in his younger years? The age was right. If Mary was widowed, she looks like she was widowed by 1850. Neighbors were John Martin, patriarch in another important family in the Red Hill Church and area. And Elijah Sibley, they were certainly living in the right location. Living right next to Martha, Mary and Washington, was a young couple, Thomas and Chloe Turner. Could they have some connection?

Name:	Thomas Turner
Age:	26
Birth Year:	abt 1824
Birthplace:	North Carolina
Home in 1850:	Cedar Hill, Anson, North Carolina, USA
Gender:	Male
Family Number:	667
Household Members:	Name Age Thomas Turner 26 Cloa Turner 24

I discovered that Thomas and Chloe had been counted twice in 1850. As some people were missed, sometimes two different census takers came close to the border of two different areas and in such, enumerated the same family twice. The couple may not have known to correct them. It seems one found them on one side of their property, next to Mary, Martha and Washington and John Martin, and the other found them living next to John Martin and wife Penelope, both 50 and the family of my Third Great-Uncle, Peter Howell and the son of my Fourth Great-Uncle, John Winfield. They were apparently living on what was once the Winfield plantation, as Peter lived on what was his father, Richard Howell and mother, Sarah Winfield Howell Davis's share. The area of the Winfield division would 50 years later become known as "Wharf".





Anson County Post Office Map Circa 1900 showing the community of Wharf. Freepages, Rootsweb.com

Other near neighbors included Robert N. Allen, John Ballard, a 24 year old Carolina Turner with an infant son named Terry A. (or Ferry A.). A 48 year old Milla Turner, with a 4 year old Alexander, and an 82 year old Treasy Turner, in one household, with Edmund Turner 25, Jane 24 and Martha 2, right next door.

I decided to look into these Turners a little bit, and will more so later. While people in different parts of a county with the same surname may have come from an entirely different area at an entirely different time, and be no relation at all, when people of the same name live close, on adjoining properties, more often than not, they are related somehow. There may have been a division of property of an older ancestor. It could lead to something, or it may not. But always worth looking into.

The young couple, Thomas and Chloe Turner, would migrate to Mississippi before the next census. They had 4 children: Martha Penelope Turner Bennett, John Martin Turner, William F. Turner and Sarah Elizabeth Turner Smith. A very quick look at the family information online from the Wiki's and Rootsweb appears to show Chloe Martin Turner as the daugther of John Martin and wife, Penelope Parker Martin, whom they lived next door to in 1850, with John being the son of Kinchen Martin and wife Chloe Hough, who migrated to Anson from Northhampton County, NC in the early part of the century. There were multiple marriages between the Martins and Parkers. As the 1860 census shows Thomas working as an overseer beneath the farm of a Peter A. Parker, there could possibly be some connection between this Parker family and the Anson County Parkers.

The Martin family did play a significant part in the life of George Washington Turner, being neighbors and church family and intermarriage occured later, between the families. As Thomas Turner also lived next to Martha, Mary and George Washington Turner in 1850, there may be some relation there.

Tombstone of John Martin at Red Hill Baptist Church. Cellphone photo May 2019

The other Turners living nearby may also deserve further investigation. Treasy Turner was advanced in age, especially for the times, and did not linger long past the 1850 census. She left a will, and in the will, she mentions her two sons, William and Jesse, her daughter, Sarah Ballard, obviously wife of a William Ballard, also mentioned, and her daughter Milly Braswell, wife of Burwell Braswell, named as the spouse in the will, her grandson, Alexander Turner, son of Milly and her "brother by law, Isham Ingram." She did not mention Edmund Turner, who lived next to her. He may have been a grandson, child of one of her living children. Her daughter, Milly, obviously married Burwell Braswell between the 1850 census and Treasy's demise two years later. Many folks have Treasey as an Ingram, due to her mention of Isham, however, while researching the Isham Ingrams, I discovered this one had married a Mary Turner, so "brother by law", probably meant what we refer to as a brother-in-law. Mary Turner Ingram may have been the sister of Treasy's deceased husband.

The father of Alexander Turner, in turn, is no section. In the Anson county land records, Book 14, Page 470 is the following deed, "Sept 29 1855 Jackson Chavers of Anson County, to his niece Laura Chavers & his son, Alexander Turner of the same, for natural love and affection and for $2 sold 12.5 acres on the north side of Wadesboro, border begins at Elijah Covington's old beginning corner white oak stump, joins Salibury Road, William Hammond, John Jeans & Mrs. Cameilla Smith's Road."

It was signed with an "X" by Jackson Chavers and witnesses by J P Jones.

If only finding the parentage of Washington Turner was so easy. No such luck.



Going back to the only land record involving George Washinton Turner, it was between him and Uriah Staton and bordered a field already owned by G. W.. But this was in 1880, 30 years later. I knew that the two most prominent men he was tied to was S. P. Morton and Uriah Staton. Find them, and I might find George's roots.

So I decided to look back at the 1840 census for clues.



Bingo. There, right beside Uriah Staton was a James Turner. Also nearby were Alexander Beard, and William Ballard, Treasy Turner's son-in-law, followed by Joseph Ingram and a Richmond Turner next to him. Richmond Turner was a younger man, and I will look into him later. I see no immediate link, but there could be, dating back to a further reaching Turner.

James Turner living next to, or near Uriah Staton, in and of itself does not mean anything. It just gives one a spot to dig in. Interestingly enough, the census takers name was James S. Turner.

Excerpt from the 1840 census of Anson County, NC. NC Archives via ancestry.com


The 1880 census had given me a big hint with the inclusion of Mary, his mother, having moved in with him in her latter years. A story on his father-in-law, Rev. Samuel P. Morton, stated he had also lived with G. W. and Wincy in his last days.  So knowing a James Turner was living near Uriah Staton in 1840, who was no where to be found in 1850, and that Uriah Staton later sold George Washington Turner a tract of land adjoining a plot he already owned or had possession of, I now had something to go on. Add that to knowing his mother was Mary and that he was possibly called Washington in his younger days, I had something to go on. Now to look more closely at James.

The problem is, there were more than one.....