T

TURNER. I am working on a book concerning the early history of the small town of La Conner in the state of Washington. A considerable number of the first
settlers (from the 1860's) were from Albert County. In fact, Samuel Calhoun from Hopewell was (almost certainly) the first settler in the area, and his brothers -- Thomas and the very distinguished Dr. George V. Calhoun -- also lived there, at least for a time. Other settlers from Albert County were the Pecks and the Wells. Three years ago I communicated with Mr. Bing Geldart regarding the Calhoun family, but my interest now is a fourth family, the Turners of Harvey. As it happens, a Turner was a very good friend of mine in grade and high school, and I do remember his talking about a Canadian forebear who was a knight. Knighted or not, Gaius Turner must have been his ancestor, since his father's name was Gaius. My friend's grandfather, however, is one of the people in whom I am most interested. Newton George Turner (born 1864, evidently in Harvey) was the son of a lumber mill owner named John Turner. I do not know his mother. In the 1880's Newton George went from New Brunswick to Minnesota, on to Grays Harbor on the Pacific coast of Washington (a logging and lumber town), and in 1893 to La Conner. In 1897 he married Cora Tingley in Victoria. Cora's mother, Mary, was born a Peck. In La Conner he would variously co-own a lumber mill, own a shingle mill, and own a lumber company. I would also like to know something about some Turners who arrived in La Conner ten years before Newton George did. In the year 1883 Rebecca Turner, born a Peck, came with her children to the La Conner area, no doubt following there her brother, Harris B. Peck. Incidentally, Harris' first wife -- the second was a New Brunswick Crandall -- was Susan West,
whom I suspect was a great aunt of Mr. William West, whom I met when I was at Hopewell three years ago. It appears that Rebecca Turner was a widow, her husband George not being on the scene. Rebecca had lost two sons -- one "at sea," the family tombstone says, and the other at Rouen -- and had gone west with one or two daughters and with her son, George Henry Turner, who must have been twenty-three at the time. The son would homestead a farm -- not far from the other Albert County people -- and would live on until he was ninety-seven or ninety-eight (to 1958). (The Albert County people seem to have been given to longevity.)
I imagine that Newton George's move to La Conner had something to do with Rebecca and George Henry. I am reasonably sure they were related. My guess is that Rebecca was Newton George's sister-in-law. At any rate, there are really two things I would like to discover. First of all, just what relationship (if any!) did Newton George have to the shipbuilder, Gaius Turner, of whom I read in 'Shadows of the Past"? His grandfather, I'd like to think, but do not know. Secondly, what relationship did Newton George in fact have with Rebecca and George Henry?

Albert County, New Brunswick

Genealogy

Surname Interests - T