02 August 2020

Legacy of John Cunningham Turner


compiled by Teresa Martin Klaiber 2020


 John Cunningham Turner Portrait original possession of Barbara Martin Strosnider daughters


John Cunningham Turner was born 31 October 1809 in Maryland.  His complete birth date is from one of those serendipity moments in my research journey. 

As a district trustee of the Ohio Genealogical Society I tried to make as many chapter meetings, in my district, as possible in the late 1980’s and 1990’s.  I made many lifelong friends during that time in my life.  One such person was Maxine Fisher who lived in Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio so it was only natural that I would bring up my 3rd great grandfather John Cunningham Turner who was a miller in Baltimore for a time.  She started to chortle and the excitement grew.  Maxine was a good friend of Madge Littlejohn Spietler (1904-1987). Maxine asked me if I knew of the Mike Clum Auction House in Thornville, Ohio.  As an avid antique dealer (I wear many hats), I had attended many auctions there.  I had missed the Spietler estate.  Maxine had not! She attended and when she saw a Davis-Turner family bible was going to go on the block, she sat down and copied every family entry.  That is true genealogical dedication.  I dropped in my tracks.  Maxine said she had no idea it would help someone so quickly.  We did contact the auction house but they stated they did not keep a record of who purchased any given item.  Maybe the bible will surface again someday.  That bible contains the records for not only John Cunningham Turner but for Elizabeth Littlejohn Turner and her parents and many other family members.  Serendipity seems to follow genealogists.  Call it fate, I know these encounters are meant to be and like to think possibly guided by our ancestors.

John Cunningham Tuner married 9 May 1833, in the German Reform Church, in Frederick County, Maryland.  His wife Elizabeth Teresa Littlejohn was born 27 January 1815 in Frederick County, daughter of George Walbert Littlejohn Jr. and wife Elizabeth Geisinger.  There is a deed for Frederick County concerning a “John Turner,” which I believe is John C., in December 1835. It is actually a bill of sale for 1 milch cow, a mantle clock, feather bed, bedstead, chairs, one walnut folding table and shop tools[i]. It is the only reference to John Turner during that time frame.

By 1840 John Cunningham Turner and Elizabeth have settled in Liberty township, Fairfield County along with her widowed mother Elizabeth Geisinger Littlejohn and three of the Turner Children: Sarah Henrietta born in Maryland, Mary Jane born 15 April 1838 (dies about 1840 in Fairfield county), and William Francis “Billy” Turner born in Baltimore, Fairfield county, Ohio. 

Between 1840 and 1846 four more children were born: Caroline “Callie”; Adaline’ Charlotte; and Charles Bing Turner.  By March 1847 John had fulfilled a bond for the purchase of 30 acres which included the flour mill and dwelling house.[ii]  The family had several more transactions in Baltimore and in February 1850 Alice Teresa was born there. 

The completion of the Ohio Canal was a boon for Turner who’s mill lay beside it in Baltimore, Liberty township, Fairfield County, Ohio.  In December 1850 John Turner along with John Detwiler purchased a canal boat named the Rochester along with some livestock and furniture[iii]. Turner’s life was turning and not going well.  The Rochester, along with every last item on board, including buckets and 3 stools was sold at a constable sale at Nelsonville, Ohio in January 1853[iv].  On 26 May 1853 lightening struck and fire consumed Turner’s mill[v]. 

The family may or may not have known in May ’53 but Elizabeth Teresa Littlejohn Turner was pregnant with her 9th child.  This compiler’s 2nd great grandmother, Elizabeth Littlejohn “Lizzie” Turner was born 9 January, 1854 at Baltimore, Ohio.  Her mother died in childbirth, another tragic blow for John Cunningham Turner.  It had to be a struggle to raise 9 children, one an infant.  When Elizabeth was four John Cunningham Turner married Janneta Susan,[vi] [vii]a widow with two children of her own: Caroline “Callie" Poff (same given as step sister), and Jacob Henry Poff born October 1856. 

By 1860 John Cunningham Turner was not in Janetta’s household.  All the children are with her. Shortly after the encounter with Maxine Fisher, I visited the courthouse in Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio.   I had located a docket entry of Janetta vs John Turner in May 1869 which indicated a divorce. It was almost lunch but the Common Plea clerk said she would gladly unlock the attic if I wanted to attempt to search files.  She warned that dockets were (at that time) strewn on the floor.  Digging in I could see that they had spilled but were closely gathered in chronological masses.  It did not take long to find a notation that an alimony notice had been sent to Los Angeles, California[viii]. 

I already knew that my great great grandmother Elizabeth “Lizzie” went to the Kentucky Female Orphan School in Midway, Kentucky and that her older sister Caroline “Callie” basically raised her. She  met my great great grandfather Henry Foster Martin via religious activities of the school.

John Turner, now age 47, a miller, was residing in Los Angeles, along with his oldest son William, also listed as a miller and next door to Julian Rodriques, wife Placeda and two children. The Los Angeles Star for 8 December 1860 listed that Turner was voted in as an officer in the Masonic Lodge along with William H. Workman.  I located several deeds for John Cunningham Turner in Los Angeles for properties along Main and Alameda Streets in LA in the 1860’s. He was listed in the July 1866 “Great Register of California s age 53 born in Maryland a miller.[ix]  A court case in 1867 showed that administrators of a Thomas Rhodes vs. John  Turner and Able Stearns for a large sum for the purchase of wheat in San Francisco shipped to Turner for him to grind.  The judgement was against Stearns and Turner and the debt was to be paid in gold or silver coin[x].  Meanwhile that alimony case was still on the books in Fairfield County, Ohio.

From March thru April 1869 a notice appeared in the Lancaster Gazette[xi] in Fairfield County. “Notice John Turner of the town of Los Angeles in the county of Los Angeles in the State of California is notified that Janette S. Turner did on the 5th Aug 1868, file her petition in the office of the Clerk of Court of Common Pleas, of Fairfield county, Ohio, charging the said, John Turner with having been willfully absent from petitioner for more than three years last past, and alleging that he owned lot 209 in the town of Baltimore, in the said county and praying that she may be divorced from said John Turner and for alimony; which petition will stand for hearing at the next term of court. J. F. Vandemark, Clerk of said court Mar 25, 1860-fwd.”

Memoirs of a Harris Newmark  wrote about John Cunningham Turner in California: “…was a small mill, run by water, known as the Eagle Mills. This was owned at different times by Abel Stearns, Francis Mellus and JR Scott and conducted from 1855 to 1868, by John Turner who came here for that purpose and whose son William with Fred Lambourn later managed the grocery store of Lambourn and Turner on Aliso Street. The miller made poor flour indeed; though probably it was quite equal to that produced by Henry Dalton at Azusa, John Rowland at the Puente....Turner's supply of flour gave out, and this indispensable commodity was then procured from San Francisco. Turner who was a large-hearted man and helpful to his fellows died in 1878, In the seventies the mill was sold to JD Deming....[xii]  The dates are a bit off since Turner had married in 1858 in Ohio.

Besides son William Francis Turner, son Charles Bing Turner appears in the California Great Register in 1867 in Los Angeles, age 21.

Eagle Mills was the predecessor of Capitol Milling.  An 1856 map showing the mill seat is available from the Huntington Library showing the mill and blocks along with Main Street[xiii].   The 1870 census shows no real estate values for John Turner, the miller, born in Maryland. Her personal estate is valued at 200.  Placida (who lived next door in 1860) is now Placida Turner, keeping house, born in California along with her two children from the marriage to Rodriques and three additional children: Dionisio, Isabella, and Mary.  All are listed with the surname Turner in El Monte township.  An additional child Carlos Rula (as sp.) aged 4 is in the household.  William Turner’s wife later wrote “My Story” quoting her husband: "…Father has retired. He is living on a ranch at Azusa...He is no longer a miller...left it to me (Wm) to carry on the profession. I am running the Temple and Workman mills...Puente Creek....[xiv]

But the story was far from over. Abel Stearns was deceased. A District Court Case in 1873 would involve John Cunningham Turner again.

Etchamendez vs Abel Stearns Deceased. In April 1868 either Stearns or Turner promised to pay Juan Etchemendez 1000 in gold coin for a loan in the use of Eagle Mills. The  note was said to be signed by Turner. Able Stearns answer denies at any time in partner with John Turner - that Turner did not have authority to sign a note and states that Etchemende is collaborating with Turner to defraud Stearns.  The reply: The loan was to purchase wheat for the use of Eagle Mills and was not paid.  The claim was that Stearns sold flour for a lot of money & disposed for his own use.  In August 1868 the operations of said defendent was broken up by said attachment and dissolved in September 1868 however operations were never renewed. The court found that the facts from the previous to year 1868 Stearns and Turner made and entered into an agreement to run a certain flouring mill in Los Angeles known as Eagle Mills belonging to said Stearns. Stearns was to give the use of the mill and furnish funds for the purchase of wheat.  Turner was to give his services as miller and be manager of the mill, and was to purchase grain, sell flour and other products and grind grist as well as procuring funds for the purchase of wheat for said mill and as such borrowed for same. At the time Turner was sole manager. The court approved the findings and Juan Etchemendez was to recover from Stearns and Turner. Abel Stearns appealed to the Supreme Court of California.   Both Etchemendez and Stearns died during proceedings.  By 1871 a note of affidavit of John Turner, William F. Turner and others was submitted to the Supreme Court. The court found errors in the reviews stating at time the note was executed Turner was neither the partner nor the agent of Stearns and that all connection between them had ceased and Turner had no right or authority to sign said note. Arcadia B. de Stearns acted as executor of Abel Stearns deceased.[xv] 

John Cunningham Turner became a grandfather in 1872.  Rebecca Humphreys Turner continues her story including a mention of her father-in-law in 1873: “Maud...especial delight to Mr. Turner's (Wm.) father. He loved to hold her, but being decidedly corpulent, his lap was inadequate even for an infant so he cuddled her on his breast and sang her to sleep with Methodist hymns. He dropped in rather often....one afternoon...on his way home from a Masonic funeral. As he was chaplain of the lodge...wearing a pair of new boots for the first time and when he reached my house he endeavored to remove them. His feet were swollen to such a degree that the boots struck fast...’I never was so tired in my life...It was a fine funeral but I thought we'd never wind the blamed thing up. I had to get down on my knees and pray a God-derned prayer a mile long’...as he limped out to his buggy...”[xvi]

from the John Shouse Martin photo collection

The Los Angeles Herald listed passengers on  a trip to San Bernardino on June 1st, 1875 via the Coast Line Stage.  This is the first indication that Placida is John Cunningham Turner’s wife.  “J. C. Turner and Wife.”  No legal marriage has been found by this compiler as I write this.

While son William Francis Turner may have helped run the Workman Mills, Turner had continued under partnership with William Workman.  The Notice of Dissolution of Partnership ran many weeks in the Los Angeles Herald. “Notice is hereby given to all ...that the partnership theretofore existing between the undersigned William Workman and John Turner in the milling business is this day dissolved by mutual agreement. Mr. Workman will settle up the...pay all debts ...This Los Angeles County, Puente Ranch, June 4, 1876. J. Turner, William Workman. Per Francis W. Temple his atty in Fact.”

Both Temple and Workman were in over their heads with a banking house.  Temple easily lent money which depleted the cash reserves.  When the 1875 crash happened because of the silver stock, panic erupted.  The bank shut its door for over 3 months. In the aftermath receivers found a loan left all the assets in the hands of Elias Baldwin, a capitalist. In May 1876 Workman took his own life.

The family register kept by my grandfather states that John Cunningham Turner died at Azusa 23 May 1877.  He was buried the next day in Los Angeles City Cemetery according to the Cemetery Burial Journal.  The cemetery is under asphalt of the Los Angeles Board of Education parking lot.[xvii]  The alimony case back in Fairfield County, Ohio was not resolved until October 1881. When  Jannette TURNER of Fairfield Co Ohio received  $1000. The court decreed that Jannette  obtained as judgement the property  as her own to use and sell such in alimony. The lot reverted to Jannette’s son Charles H. Ward for taking care and providing for his mother Jannetta S. TURNER and repairing and rebuilding Lot 209 as well as building and a new barn. Jannette reserved the right to remain on property until her death.[xviii]


Sarah Henrietta Turner born 23 March 1836 in Maryland married 19 December 1854, Fairfield County, Ohio to Bernard C. Shircliff.  Shircliff died in March 1894 in Chautauqua County, Kansas from an accident of a run-away team.  Sarah died in July 1911 and buried beside her husband in Hardrock Cemetery.

William Francis Turner born 14 September 1839 in Fairfield county, Ohio.   married Sarah Rebecca Humphreys 28 May 1871 in LA, California.  He died 18 August 1928. In 1874 Turner was attacked on the Puenta Rancho at the mill store by a man named El Gordo aka Tes Pinos.  Mrs. Turner came into the store with a small revolver and seized the man and pushed him out the door and fired at him.  During the shooting she was shot by El Gordo and wounded. Rebecca had given birth to a male son that died the same day just the month before.

Caroline Amelia “Callie” Turner was born 7 March 1841 at Baltimore, Fairfield county, Ohio.  She married Henry Goddard Ward 24 April 1862 in Fairfield county.  He is listed as a boatman in 1860 probably along the canal. By 1870 he was training horses in Kentucky and shortly after was in Deer Lodge, Cottonwood Township, Montana. His obituary states he was an expert in the care of horses and later opened a livery and “The Kentucky Stables” which was a freighting business that ran in Utah and Deer Lodge.  He died in 1901 and Callie in 1917.

Adaline August Turner born 6 March 1841 at Baltimore married 23 December 1858 David M. May. She was twin of Caroline.

Charlotte C. Turner was born 28 December 1843 and died 3 February 1849 in Fairfield County, Ohio.

Charles Bing Turner was born 5 July 1846 in Fairfield County, Ohio.  He served as Pvt. In the 17th Infantry Regt. During the Civil War.  At the end of the war he removed to LA, California. He was married two times: Mary Campbell and Helen L. Cook.  He was a grocer. He died in Oakland, Alameda County, 1 August 1919 and is buried in the Los Angeles National Cemetery.

Alice Teresa Turner was born 8 Febraury 1850 in Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio. She married Samuel Louis Davis in 1867 in Hocking County, Ohio. Alice died 3 March 1894 in Magnetic Springs, Union County, Ohio.

Elizabeth Littlejohn “Lizzie” Turner was born 9 January 1854 at Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio.  She was enrolled in the Kentucky Female Orphan School in 1869.  She married 3 July 1879 Henry Foster Martin, a Christian Minister.  In October 1933 she was reunited with her step brother Henry Poff of Fairmont, Indiana.  The article says that they played tag together in Versailles, Kentucky and they had not seen each other in 40 years[xix]. Lizzie died 3 March 1936 of encephelitas myelitis at her daughter’s home in Saint Albans, West Virginia.  She was buried at Pine Hill, Morehead, Kentucky next to her husband who had died at Farmers, Rowan County, in March 1905.


DNA confirms that the children of John Cunningham Turner and Elizabeth Littlejohn Turner are ½ siblings to the children of John Cunningham Turner and Placid Ruelas.  Placida married 18 May 1843 in Catedral De La Asuncion, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico Ramon Monje.  By this marriage she had Jose Juan Del Carmen Monge Ruelas born about 1845 and Vacilio Felis De Jesus Monje Ruelas born before June 1846 in Hermosillo.  Placida married #2 June 1855 in LA to Julian Rodriquez and had Jose S. Rodriquez in 1856 and Romona Rodriques in 1859.  John Cunningham Turner and Placida had the following children:

Dionisio R. Turner 1863-1913. Dionisio married Maria de Refugia “Mary Ruth” Estrada 30 October 1882 in Los Angeles.  They had 11 Turner children.

Isabella Florence Turner 1865-1924 married fist Pedro M. Estrada and had 3 children.  After divorce in May 1895 she married Hans S. Christianson.  She died 19 May 1924 in Los Angeles.

Mary Ann “Marianna” Turner was born 15 April 1866 at El Monte, Los Angeles. She married first Walter Willis Morris 19 December 1895 in LA.  Walter died in LA in 1897.  She married #2 Willis Joseph Sawyer Morris. Morse was a publisher and they travelled.  The family was involved with the precursor of Vanity Fair.  They had a yacht registered in Atlantic City named the Marian  He died in 1921 at a hospital in Atlantic city listing a residence in Philadelphia.  He left a probate in London, England. Her last known residence was Ocean City, New Jersey in the late 1930’s.  

Placida Ruelas Monje Rodriques Turner continued to reside at Azusa after John Cunningham Turner’s death. She died 15 June 1888. At her death she left a will[xx] According to the Los Angeles Herald, probate, with no bond required, granted Juan Monje.[xxi] The Superior Court stated that her death occurred on or about 14 July 1888 as a resident of Azusa township.  In total the estate involved 38 37/100 acres.  Daughter Mary received 8 acres.  Juan Monje 5 45/100 acres, Dionisio 8 acres, Ramona 5 45/100 acres, Jose Rodriquez 5 45/100 and Isabella acreage and Mary all household and Kitchen furniture[xxii] The will and the Superior Court entry list her as Placida Ruela not Turner.  Placida was in every way his wife and the mother of three of his children.  No one in my branch of the family knew of Placida and the extended family, or if they did they did not mention it. 

I want to thank Peter Dewees for his insight concerning the Workman’s and Los Angeles history. He descends from William F. Turner.  I wish to acknowledge Kelly Davis for her lovely information concerning the issues of Placida.  They are both part of my extended network of wonderful cousins. To  my cousin Barbara Martin Strosnider (1934-2019) who carted the trunk loaded with my great grandfather John Shouse Martin’s photo collection out to our farm and trusted me to first photograph then digitize the collection which includes the original John Cunningham Turner photographs; special love.  The JS Martin collection is now entrusted to her daughter’s Ann and Lucy for safe keeping and to continue the legacy of our families.

The Canal next to where the Turner Property was in Baltimore, Fairfield County, Ohio. From the John Shouse Martin photo collection. Nellie Kautz Martin w/o John Shouse Martin on right.


[i] Maryland, Frederick, : Lib 1 folio 220, Dec 21 1835 John Turner/Charles Jones; Maryland State Archives, .
[ii] Fairfield County, Ohio, Deeds, Deed book 13 page 401, Turner bond, March 1847; Courthouse, Lancaster, Ohio
[iii] LibertyTownship, Trustee Records Fairfield County, Ohio 1835-1866 (N.p.: Fairfield chapter, Ohio Genealogical Society, n.d.), Page 19.
[iv] "Constable Sale," Athens Messenger, between 31 December 1852 and 10 January 1853, sale of canal boat Rochester.
[v] Lancaster Gazette, 26 May 1853, .
[vi] m 1 John Ward and 2. Jacob Poff who died in 1856.
[vii] Fairfield County, Ohio, Volume 2: Page 170, Turner to Poff; Courthouse, Lancaster, ohio. 15 Mar 1858
[viii] Fairfield County, Ohio, Appearance Dockets Docket 11 page 110, 325, Turner Alimony, , 1868–1869; Courthouse, Lancaster, Ohio.
[ix] California State Library, California History Section; Great Registers, 1866-1898; Collection Number: 4 - 2A; CSL Roll Number: 19; FHL Roll Number: 976928.
[x]
Los Angeles County, California, District Civil Court , Box 1277, Dec 1867, Barrows vs John Turner etal; Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
[xii] Harris Newmark, Sixty years in Southern California 1853-1913, containing the reminiscenses of Harris Newmark, Maurice H. Newmark and Marco R. Newmark, 2nd ed, rev. and augm. (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1916), 87.
[xiv] Rebecca Humphreys Turner, My Story, typecraft (Pasadena, CAlifornia: n.p., circa 1960), Page 71-2.
[xv] Los Angeles County, California, Dsitrict Civil Court , Case 1425, Box 46, , 1873; Huntington Library, San Marino, California. District Ct Case 1425 - Supreme Court 4107
[xvi] Rebecca Humphreys Turner, My Story, typecraft (Pasadena, CAlifornia: n.p., circa 1960), Page 89.
[xvii] Southern California Genealogical Society and Family Research Center (Los Angeles, California), Los Angeles City Cemetery Burial Journal, data base (http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/free/LA-City-Cem-Alpha2.htm#t : accessed 20 December 2013), Jno. Turner.
[xviii] Fairfield County, Ohio, Deeds, deed book 48 Page 232, Turner, 8 October 1881; Courthouse, Lancaster, Ohio
[xix] "Pair Reunited After 40 Years," undated clipping, October 1933, from unidentified newspaper; ; privately held by Teresa Martin Klaiber, [address for private use].
[xx] California Society DAR, EArly California Wills, vol 2 (N.p.: n.p., 1952), page 89.
[xxi] Los Angeles Herald 29 Jul 1888
[xxii] California, Los Angeles, Superior Court Probate, #8228 M. B. 18 page 314, .