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| Turner Family Crest |
July 7, 2023
The genesis of the idea for this visit to Kentucky was a story we read about a feud in Kentucky that included members of the Turner family. It was a bloody feud that took the lives of some Turner and Howard families and gang members. The headquarters of the Turner family was the William Turner II mansion in Harlan, Kentucky. The Howards lived downstream in Pineville — both occupying the Cumberland River Valley in southeast Kentucky. The Turners were one of the first four families to settle in this Valley and once owned about 10 miles of river and its branches, including the area where Harlan town is now found.
As is our normal procedure, usually the first place we visit in a new town is the visitor center. When we asked the receptionist if she knew any Turners, she referred us to a lady who worked at the Harlan County Courthouse. So, at the courthouse, we met Jessica Turner — a very pleasant lady who helped as much as she could, but as with most of the folks we interviewed on this trip, could not remember any of her ancestors beyond their grandparents or maybe great-grandparents — as is true of most folks.
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| Jessica Turner |
Consequently, we could not find any definitive link between her immediate family and ours.
However, she proved to be very helpful when she offered to introduce us to James Turner who is currently serving a State Representative of Harlan County. Unfortunately, he had some commitments he could not duck, so we were introduced to David Turner who worked as an assistant for an attorney in Harlan County. David ushered Pat and me into his boss's office and we met Sid Douglas — the attorney who knows much of the history of Harlan County and is especially knowledgeable about the Turners who lived there.
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| Sid Douglas |
Mr. Douglas was almost exuberant in his willingness to share his historical knowledge of the Turner family in Harlan. He simply took off from his schedule at his law practice to invite us to ride with him in his pickup to see places of importance to the Turner family. So, Pat and I and our little dog Tiger climbed in his pickup, and off we went. The first stop was the downtown cemetery that had recently been recovered and cleaned up. There, we found the headstone of William Turner III.
Then he took us a few miles east of Harlan to the small town of Everts, where he showed us the Turner Baptist Church and an adjacent home where some members of the Turner Family had lived.
Later, we googled and found the Turner Family Cemetery uphill maybe a quarter mile behind the Turner church. We drove our Winnebago View up the narrow driveway until low-hanging branches prevented us from going further. I left the motorhome with Pat and walked up the remainder of the steep driveway to the cemetery. I found some Turner headstones, but none that seemed to link to Pat’s direct ancestry. Hearing honking in the driveway below, I hurried back to find I had blocked the driveway to a home. I apologized to the fellow I had blocked but explained that there was no other place to park.
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| Coal Miner and Pat |
He understood and explained that he is a coal miner who just finished his night shift — looking forward to a little rest. Nice guy! I was a little surprised about his occupation because I thought that most coal mining had been banned in the area. He allowed us to turn around in his driveway and we went on our way.
Main Characters in This Story
So please dear, gentle reader, allow me to digress from this story to explain the major characters in this drama. And, we will follow my wife, Patricia Turner Sterling’s ancestors in the Turner family, generation after generation from Devon, England to London, to Virginia, Kentucky, Kansas, and Texas. Before William I came to America, there were two generations of John Turners in Devon, England. The primary focus of this yarn will be on those ancestors who contributed to Pat’s gene pool.
Our own family records on ancestry.com reveal three major individuals of my wife Pat Turner Sterling’s ancestry that are confusing. (See the Sterling Family Tree of 12-20-2019). The heads of the first three Turner generations in the USA were named “William” with no middle name to distinguish them. For convenience, we will name them William one, two, and three. William One was born in 1748 and later moved from London to Virginia.
William II was born in 1770 but left his hometown of Henry, Virginia to cross the Cumberland mountains where he settled in the Cumberland River Valley in the vicinity of what was to later to become the town of Harlan, Kentucky. It is difficult for me to imagine the labor involved in clearing native forests to produce farmland. There were huge American Chestnut trees growing in the Appalachian Mountains at the time — until the Chestnut blight entered the USA in about 1900 and wiped out most of them.
William also carved a large farm out of the wilderness on Clover Fork of the Cumberland River, where (according to Mr. Douglas) his slaves grew corn which was used to make whiskey. It was not illegal to distill corn liquor until the prohibition was enacted in 1920. Then, after prohibition was canceled, our government decided it needed a share of the wealth by taxing liquor. But legally or illegally, William II became relatively wealthy by the standards of the day. He and Susannah Bailey had nine children. William III was born in 1812 and although he did not contribute genes to Pat’s gene pool, he was apparently convicted of murder and died in prison in 1887.
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| George and Mary Turner |
John was born in 1845, married two ladies named Roxy Ann Dye and Phoebe, then died in 1890. He served as a minister and was buried in the Hammonsville Cemetery. He had moved from Green County to nearby Hammonsville, KY in Hart County where James Irwin Turner was born in 1868.
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| John Baily Turner |
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| Malissa and James Turner |
James also became a minister and married Malissa Ann Gaddie — they had five children and moved to Wellington, KS in about 1814.
Winfred Turner (Pat’s father) was the second child and married Lela Margaret Hill in 1929 — after he moved to Edinburg, TX. They had three children, John, Jim, and Patricia (Pat).
So, Pat and our children and grandchildren all carry genes from these ancestors — except William III.
Hart County Turners
Because Pat’s Father was born in Hart County of central Kentucky, it seemed logical to search there for family connections. On passing through Munfordville — the county seat of Hart County — we noticed the Hart County History Museum. Inside, we found Macy and a couple of her friends. They seemed almost anxious to help us. When I explained that we were on a quest for Turner Family linkages, they soon found a folder containing newspaper clippings of stories relating to any mention of a Turner.
They searched diligently but found no direct linkages to James Irwin or Winfred Turner.
They concluded that our best bet was to visit Arthur Lee Turner in the nearby town of Hammonsville. He is a well-known farmer in the community and if anybody in the area knows of a connection between your families, it could be him. “He lives in a rock-fronted home on a hill — you can’t miss it.”
Now, Hammonsville might have once been an incorporated town or something, but now seems to be composed of a few homes along Hwy 357. As we entered the area, we noticed a road sign labeled “Gaddie Cemetery Road.” Because Pat’s grandmother’s maiden name was “Gaddie,” we were hooked. Wow, a family cemetery might be very useful, we surmised. So, we drove on this small road, passing several old tobacco barns along the way — but no Gaddie Cemetery. After several miles, we found a fellow in a pickup truck that was parked along the road. So I stopped and queried him about the location of the cemetery. He introduced himself as Bill Heath.
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| Bill Heath |
He replied, “You should turn around and enter those woods back on the road you just came from. After you enter those woods, look for a green gate that is the entrance to the cemetery.” We thanked him, turned around, found a green gate, and walked maybe a half mile on a driveway with many overhanging branches that prevented us from entering our motorhome. The driveway ended at somebody’s home. No cemetery. On the way back, we met a man and woman that looked upon us with some suspicion because we were unknowingly trespassing on private land. When it became obvious to them that we were not carrying any stolen goods from the house at the end of the road, and after we explained that we were searching for the Gaddie Cemetery, they relaxed and explained that we should drive a little further to a second green gate. So, we did. There was no sign at the turn-off that identified the cemetery.
The Gaddie Cemetery was recently mowed and well-maintained. We made way for a fawn to escape the confines of the cemetery fence. Then we photographed the headstones, but could not find any direct connection to Pat’s grandmother Malissa. But, we got a little exercise and saw some pretty country, so the experience was not without some value.
After completing the Gaddie Cemetery loop, we found Arthur Lee Turner’s home and knocked on the door. No answer. As we prepared to leave, one of Arthur’s workers drove in and explained that Arthur was working on some equipment out back. The large area behind his home was where large trucks, tractors, combines and such could maneuver. This equipment yard was surrounded by large storage bins, sheds, and many kinds of farm equipment.
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| Arthur Lee Turner |
Arthur soon appeared and I felt a little guilty. Arthur was wearing headphones with which he could make phone calls and direct his farm operations. He could order farm equipment parts, instruct his workers or chat with a relative while keeping his hands free. He was obviously a very busy man with a large operation. However, he was very congenial and helpful. He had taken over the operation of this farm when a tree limb fell and killed his father. Arthur was a leader in the community and the kind of fellow that would help a neighbor in time of need.
I explained our quest for Turner family connections, but he could think of none, so he called a close relative that he thought might be able to help. The relative would be there in about 45 minutes, so we found a shady spot in the Hammonsville cemetery to nap and wait. After a short nap, I walked the cemetery and took photos of headstones that contained the Turner name.
When we returned to Arthur’s home, a fellow in a pickup motioned for us to follow him. We followed him to his home nearby and he invited us inside. He introduced himself as David Turner and I explained our mission.
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| David Turner |
Behind his home was a field of tobacco — one of the few that we observed in Kentucky. “Arthur farms it for me,” David said. Arthur had told me the story earlier. “We don’t make much money growing tobacco,” he said. “But, we have a family of Mexicans that comes here every year on some sort of special visa to help us with the crop. Fundamentally, I grow the crop to provide them with some income so when they go back to Mexico for the winter, they can live on their savings.”
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| Tobacco Field |
Anyway, David showed us his family tree, but we could not see any tangible family connection. But we did determine that he is a guitar aficionado. There is a display of guitars in his living room — some that he made himself.
Trip Summary
We made one large loop in Kentucky from Bowling Green, north to the state capital at Frankfort, east to Mt. Sterling, south-east to the Red River Gorge, then on to Harlan, the headwaters of the Cumberland River, into Stony-gap Virginia, back across the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, northwest to London, then west to Lake Cumberland, Glasgow, Hopkinsville, Land Between the Lakes, then we left Kentucky into Clarksville, Tennessee, and home to Texas.
We stayed at several commercial RV parks, state parks, and three Harvest Host parks where camping is free — an old train station, the Axe Handle Distillery, and an apple orchard.
While writing this story, I realized that there was not a single person that we met in Kentucky — especially the Turners — that I did not like. Just solid, friendly folks with a ready smile and willingness to help us in our quest. We never know how we will be received on a trip like this, but these folks could not have been much more accommodating.
Thank you all.
