Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Hon. Jesse Turner

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The Hon. Jesse Turner was born in Orange County, N. C., October 3, 
1805, and is a son of James and Rebecca (Clendenin) Turner, and is of 
Scotch-Irish descent, both on the paternal and maternal side. More 
than 200 years ago his ancestors immigrated from Scotland to County 
Down, in the northern part of Ireland, and about 1750 came to America, 
settling in Lancaster County, Penn. Among this party was his 
grandfather, James Turner. James Turner, Jr., the father of Jesse, was 
born in Lancaster County, but his grandfather removed to North 
Carolina about the year 1762, taking his son James with him, and 
settled in Orange County (Hawfields), where the subject of this sketch 
was born. The father, James Turner, was a Revolutionary soldier, and 
fought under Gen. Greene at Guilford Court-house, and was an active 
participant in many other engagements with the Tories. He was finally 
take prisoner by the notorious Tory partisan, Col. David Fannen, in 
September, 1781, at Hillsboro, N. C., with Gov. Thomas Burke and many 
other Whig soldiers, all of whom were marched to Wilmington, and 
shipped thence to Charleston, where they were all detained as 
prisoners of war (except Gov. Burke, who made his escape) until the 
close of hostilities. The father, James Turner, died in 1856 at the 
age of ninety-eight years. The mother, Rebecca Clendenin, was born on 
Haw River, Orange Co., N. C., about 1765, and died in 1863 at the age 
of ninety-eight years. Of their nine children three are still living. 
David, farmer and hotel-keeper at Pittsboro, N. C.; Joseph, the 
youngest, living near the old homestead in North Carolina, and Jesse, 
the subject of this sketch, who received a good academic education, 
which has been very greatly improved by self-culture. At the age of 
eighteen he taught school, and at nineteen was a law student in the 
office of his early friend, William McCauley, Esq. In May, 1825, he 
was admitted to the bar at Ashboro, Randolph Co., N. C., and at once 
commenced the practice in the county court, and the following year he 
was admitted to practice in the supreme court. In 1830 he immigrated 
to the western country, stopping for a few months at Bellefonte, 
Jackson Co., Ala. In the spring of 1831 he continued his journey 
westward to the Territory of Ark., when he finally located at Van 
Buren, the seat of justice of Crawford Co., soon after becoming one of 
its most influential citizens. The first wife of Judge Turner was 
Violet P. Drennen, a native of Allegheny County, Penn., born in 1817. 
This lady survived her marriage less than one year. In the year 1855 
the Judge married Rebecca J. Allen, a native of Warwickshire, England, 
but reared at Pittsburgh, Penn. This marriage has been blessed with 
one son, Jesse Turner, Jr., an attorney who was partly educated at 
Pittsburgh and Van Buren, Ark. His more advanced studies were pursued 
at Kenmon High-school, Amherst Court-house, Va., and at the University 
of Virginia. He is a young man of marked ability, and is now his 
father's law partner. Judge Turner was an ardent admirer of Mr. Clay, 
and an active and conspicuous Whig politician from the early formation 
of the Whig party until it ceased to exist as a distinct political 
organization. In the terrible struggle between the North and the 
South, growing out of the slavery agitation, he was opposed to the 
secession of the Southern States from the Union, because not 
authorized by the fundamental law of the Government, and because 
otherwise impolitic and ruinous to the best interests of the South. 
But when the war was over he sincerely desired a restoration of 
harmony and union between the lately warring sections. He therefore 
was opposed to the Government's policy of reconstruction, because he 
believed it calculated very greatly to estrange and embitter the 
sections, and utterly unworthy of the magnanimity and generosity of a 
great and powerful government in the hour of its triumph over a 
prostrate and helpless people. In 1838 he was elected a member from 
the counties of Crawford and Franklin to the House of Representatives 
of the Arkansas Legislature, and in 1840 he took a very active part in 
the canvass of [p.1206] that year, which resulted in the election of 
William Henry Harrison to the presidency. In 1841 he was appointed, by 
the Secretary of War, one of the committee to attend the examination 
of cadets at West Point, and in 1851, upon the establishment of the 
Western (Federal) District of Arkansas, was appointed United States 
Attorney for that district. In 1861 he was elected a member, from the 
county of Crawford, of the famous convention that ultimately passed 
the ordinance of secession. In 1866-67 he was a member of the State 
Senate, and took an active part in the deliberations of that body; was 
chairman of the judiciary committee, and in 1874-75 he was again a 
member of the State Senate from Crawford and Franklin Counties, when 
he again took an active part in the proceedings of that body, 
contributing his full share in building up the prostrated credit of 
the State. In 1878 he was appointed by Gov. Miller a judge of the 
supreme court, to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge 
David Walker. Judge Turner has always been a steadfast friend to every 
public and private improvement looking to the up-building and 
development of the State. He has been connected officially with the 
Little Rock & Fort Smith Railway for many years, and is also connected 
officially with the Kansas & Arkansas Valley Railway, both of which 
enterprises are doing much, and will do a vast deal more, toward 
building up and adding to the wealth and prosperity of all Western 
Arkansas. Judge Turner's personal integrity, his high sense of honor 
and rare intellectual ability are recognized, not only by the 
community in which he lives, but throughout the State of his adoption. 
For more than fifty-seven years he has been a resident of the State of 
Arkansas, and during the greater part of this time has been engaged in 
the practice of the law in the Western counties of the State, 
including the United States Court for the Western District of Arkansas 
and the supreme court of the State. He deservedly stands high in his 
chosen profession of the law, not only for ability and learning, but 
for his bearing and deportment at the bar, which is worthy of all 
praise. Touching his religious impressions he is a firm believer in 
the immortality of the soul, and in reward and punishment here and 
hereafter, corresponding to our actions in this life, and though not a 
member of any church, he is a very liberal and generous contributor to 
all charities.