Crenshaw County AlArchives Biographies.....Turner, Edward 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joyce English jenglis000@centurytel.net July 13, 2009, 12:20 pm

Author: himself

I will be 88 years old the 17th day of next August. I was born in Dallas County
in 1827 and came to this county in 1837 and settled ten miles east of Greenville
and lived there until 1856 and moved to Black Rock.  I gave the land to the
Primitive Baptist Church at that place and also gave its name from an old black
rock near by.  I bought 313 acres of land there in 1855 at 10 cents per acre.  I
lived here till the Civil War.  I sold this land during the war and at the close
settled near little Patsaliga Creek on the Greenville and Troy road near
Honoraville which I understand is now the oldest established Post Office in the
county and lived there till 1882 when I moved to Texas and lived there 30 years.
I then came back to Crenshaw county.  I traveled over more than one hundred
counties while in Texas & my opinion is that, old Crenshaw is just about as good
a place as anywhere,if not the best.

When I first moved to this County there were only a few settlers and very little
open land.  The principal crops were corn, peas and wheat.  We thrashed the by hand
and made our own bread. There wasn't much cotton raised at that time. Just a
little for home consumption, as we has to pick the seed from the lint and spin &
weave the cloth for our clothes.

Our nearest market was Montgomery.  We only went to market about once a year and
bought a years supply. We raised nearly everything we had at home so it wasn't
necessary to go to market so often as we do now.  I visited Montgomery what is now
Commerce St. was a forest covered with timber and cane.  There were a good many
Indians here then. They were friendly and taught me how to hunt deer and other
game. The Indians would often bring to our house, hams of venson. We would give
them meal and other things in exchange.  We did not have any public roads, mostly
trails and we went on horse back. There were no public schools at that time.
There were some bears and a good many panthers and wolves. I remember once the
wolves killed sixty-five sheep in one night for one of our neighbors. There were
no towns in this county at this time.  Greenville was the nearest village and
there were only a few log huts there.  The first settlers there, were the
Bollings, Dunklins & Demings.  I was also well acquainted with Thomas Watts when he
was a young man.  He was governor of Al during the Civil War.  The first
Presidential election that I was interested in was the race between James K. Polk
and Henry Clay. I was for Clay but Polk was elected.

There was no credit business at that time.  We paid cash for everything we
bought.  We did not know anything about notes and mortgages.  We made our shoes as
follows: we would burn out a hole in a pine log and tan out leather and make our
shoes by hand.

Uncle Ed Turner of Honoraville, Ala. Aug.15,1915

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/crenshaw/bios/turner74nbs.txt

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