Kent County MI Archives News.....Aaron B. Turner Sucumbed to His Injuries June 9, 1903
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Marilyn Johnson McDowell texas26@gmail.com May 11, 2009, 4:51 pm

Grand Rapids Press June 9, 1903

Aaron B. Turner Succumbed to His Injuries. 

End Was Peaceful Aged Citizen.

Aged Citizen Had Been Unconscious for Days.

Something of the History of a Man Prominent in the Life of Grand Rapids.

Mr. A.B. Turner died at his residence om Shelton street this morning. He had
been unconscious for some days and passed peacefully away, surrounded by his
immediate family. The cause of his death was shock resulting from injuries
sustained in alighting from a street car in Cincinnati, his advanced age from
the first precluding much hope of recovery.
The funeral will be held Thursday at 2:30 p.m. from All Souls' Church. Interment
in Fulton street cemetery will be private.
Aaron B, Turner was born in Plattsburg, Clinton county, N.Y., August 27, 1822.
He was the son of Isaac Turner, a millwright and iron worker and came to this
city with his father in 1836, settling on the West Side.
In 1888 young Turner began his apprenticeship as a printer working in the office
of the newly established Grand Rapids Times, the first paper published in this
section and continuing his career as a printer with the Enquirer which succeeded
the Times. 
In 1843 he married Miss Sally C. Sibley, daughter of Captain Willard Sibley, one
of the pioneer steamboat captains of the Grand river.

STARTED THE WEEKLY EAGLE
In 1844, Mr. Turner became himself a publisher. He secured a Washington hand
press and material and on Christmas day issued the first number of the Grand
Rapids Weekly Eagle, every line of type in the sheet having been set by his own
hands. The Eagle was a Whig publication and marked also the entrance of the
publisher into the arena of politics. From that date until he sold the
controlling interest in the Daily and Weekly Eagle to E.N. Dingley in December
1893, Mr. Turner had continuously conducted the destinies of the paper.
In 1852 Mr. Turner inaugurated a campaign for a new political party claiming
that the Whig organization had outlived its usefulness. His zeal led to both
himself and his paper being read out of the party in 1854, but in the local
campaign of that year the new idea won out and Wilder D. Foster was elected
mayor defeating both Democratic and Whig candidates.

Held Many Official Positions.
Mr. Turner held many official positions of trust and honor. In 1843-44 he was
clerk of the township of Walker. In 1850 he was elected the first city clerk of
Grand Rapids and he was at his death the only surviving member of the first city
government. 
He was journal clerk of the first Republican house of representatives at Lansing
at the session of 1855; official reporter for the state senate in 1859 and 1861.
In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln, collector of internal revenue for
the Fourth District of Michigan and organized the internal revenue service in
the northwestern portion of this peninsula.
In 1866 he was removed from that service by President Johnson because he could
not approve the reconstruction policy of the latter.
In 1869 he was appointed postmaster of Grand Rapids by President Grant and was
reappointed in 1873, holding the office two full terms, during which he
inaugurated the free delivery system in this city,
In 1880 he was chosen and served as the presidential elector. He was one of the
commissioners appointed by Governor Luce to represent Michigan at the centennial
celebration of President Washington's inauguration held at New York. April 30,
1889.

Something of His Private Life.
Mr. Turner was a great lover of outdoor sports and had always been an ardent
follower of the gun and rod and had become an acknowledged authority on sports
in Michigan. 
He was a charter member of the Grand Rapids Old Settler's association, which was
organized in 1858.
His wife died in 1894, and his eldest daughter, Mrs. Frank Godfrey passed away
twelve years ago, but seven children, five daughters and two sons still live of
his immediate family. They are Mrs. Ellen E. Wilson, Mrs. Freeman S. Milmine,
Mrs. T.J. Mosher of this city. Mrs. George L. Jocelyn of Hannibal, Mo.; Mrs. G.
Ernest Milmine of San Bernadino, Cal.; Aaron B. Turner, jr. and Willard S.
Turner of this city. He also leaves three sisters. Mrs. Eli F. Harrington, Mrs.
Clarissa B. Rosenberg and Mrs. Alzina E. Mattison all of this city, and one
brother Willard. S. Turner.

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