Lyman Turner Biography


	This biography appears on pages 656-657 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

      This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
      a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

      http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


	LYMAN TURNER. - The subject of this review enjoys the distinction 
of being one of the leading farmers and stock raisers of Brown county, 
and his long period of residence in this part of South Dakota has made 
his name a household word throughout a large section of the country. 
Lyman Turner is of New England birth, being a native of Oxford county, 
Maine where he first saw the light of day on June 5 of the year 1842. 
When a boy he accompanied his parents to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where 
he grew to manhood and received his education the meanwhile becoming 
skillful in the use of tools by working on the farm with his father who 
was a carpenter and millwright.  

	Young Turner devoted his attention to mechanical and farm work 
until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he laid aside the 
pursuits of civil life and went to the maintaining of the integrity of 
the Union. Enlisting August 14, 1861, in Company B, Tenth Wisconsin 
Infantry, he served successively in the armies of the Ohio, Cumberland 
and Tennessee and was with his command through all its vicissitudes of 
campaign and contest, from Perryville to the fall of Atlanta, 
participating in eighteen pitched battles, besides numerous minor 
engagements and skirmishes, and under all circumstances beating himself 
as a true soldier, who made duty paramount to every other 
consideration. With the exception of a short time in the hospital, he 
was never absent from his command, and notwithstanding the number of 
bloody engagements in which he took part, and the many times he was 
exposed to danger and death, he came through the trying ordeal without 
wound or injury. Being honorably discharged in the fall of 1864, after 
three years and two months of strenuous and faithful service, Mr. 
Turner returned to Wisconsin and spent the winter at the high school at 
Harrison. In the spring of 1865 he came to Blue Earth county, 
Minnesota, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1871, in which 
year he married and moved onto a farm in Faribault county, that state, 
which he operated for two years. He then traded the farm for a stock of 
general merchandise, and for two years conducted a store, having the 
postoffice in connection. In the fall of 1875 he lost everything by 
fire, and then went to work at contracting and building. In the spring 
of 1877 he came to South Dakota, and locating at Sioux Falls, spent the 
ensuing five years as a contractor and builder, during which time he 
did considerable work in that city and other places. Returning to 
Wisconsin in 1882 he spent one year at Superior, that state, but in the 
spring of 1883 again came west and decided to make his permanent home 
in Brown county, South Dakota. After spending one year at Columbia, as 
a contractor, he discontinued mechanical pursuits and opening a 
hardware store in that town, soon found himself at the head of a 
thriving and constantly growing business. His establishment became 
large and extensively patronized, but after managing the same until 
1893, he disposed of his stock and turned his attention to agricultural 
pursuits, moving in 1894 to a rented farm of six hundred and four acres 
which he farmed till 1900, when he moved onto his own farm of three 
hundred and eighty-five acres, and gave it the name of the Badger farm, 
by which it is now known.  

	Since 1894 Mr. Turner has devoted his entire attention to 
agriculture and stock raising and his success in both these lines has 
steadily increased until he now ranks with the foremost farmers and 
cattle raisers, not only in this county, but in the eastern part of the 
state. He farms two hundred  and forty acres of his land, and makes a 
specialty of graded short-horned cattle, in the breeding  and raising 
of which he has achieved an enviable reputation. For several years past 
he has rented and grown between five hundred and six hundred acres of 
grain, with an annual product of about six  thousand bushels, the large 
yield attesting the great fertility of his land and its peculiar 
adaptability  to any kind of crop grown in this latitude. Mr. Turner 
has made many valuable improvements on his  farm and could easily 
dispose of it at fifty dollars per acre, a remarkable advancement on 
the  amount which he originally invested in the land. He has no desire 
to sell, however, being content with the beautiful and attractive home 
he has secured and satisfied with the life he now leads, as a 
prosperous and thrifty tiller of the soil, and a raiser of fine live 
stock, which, with his surplus grain crops, yields him a liberal and 
continuously increasing income.  

	In his political sentiment, Mr. Turner is a pronounced 
Republican, and he has been one of the active party workers in Brown 
county, frequently being chosen a delegate to local, district and state 
conventions, but his ambition has never led him to seek office nor 
aspire to any kind of public distinction. Coming to South Dakota more 
than twenty-seven years ago, he has witnessed the remarkable 
advancement of the state along the line of material development, and 
like other enterprising men of his class, has enencouraged to the limit 
of his ability this steady growth, having faith in the ultimate 
greatness of the commonwealth and in the stability of its institutions. 
Mr. Turner possesses a strong and sturdy character, and his prominence 
as a public-spirited citizen has made him widely and favorably known 
throughout the county of which he is an honored resident. His industry, 
economy and consecutive application have enabled him to acquire a 
handsome property and become one of the well-to-do men of his 
community, while his strength of mind and activity in all of his 
undertakings constitute him a leader whom others are wont to imitate 
and follow.  

	Mr. Turner's family consists of himself and wife only, their 
union having never been blessed with offspring. He has raised two 
children, however, and provided liberally for their maintenance, giving 
them the best educational advantages the country affords and sparing no 
pains in looking after their interests and preparing them for lives of 
honor and usefulness. Mrs. Turner, formerly Miss Nettie Emerson, was 
born in Ellisburg, Jefferson county, New York, but, in the fall of 
1856, when about ten years of age, accompanied her parents upon their 
removal to Minnesota, where she lived until her marriage to Mr. Turner, 
in April, 1871. She and her husband are consistent communicants of the 
Congregational church, being among the original members of the 
congregation worshiping at Columbia.