Edward John Turner
Introduction
Edward and Martha Turner were my great grandparents, the parents of my father's mother, Rose Belle Turner-Hine. Edward was probably born in Canada (though some sources indicate Wisconsin). He grew up in Wisconsin and received at least a partial college education there before venturing west to the Washington and Idaho frontier. Martha was born in Missouri before coming to the Washington Territory with her parents as a very young girl in the early 1860's. Edward and Martha met and married in the Washington Territory and subsequently settled in southeast Idaho in 1877 where they raised their family. Edward became a successful cattle rancher and civic leader who was largely responsible for bringing irrigation and its resulting economic vitality to Idaho's Gem Valley. Additionally, he served for at time as an Idaho Water Commissioner. After Edward and Martha's 1903 divorce the family spread out across Idaho (except for my grandmother Rose who had previously moved to Seattle where she would spend the rest of her life). Edward and Martha surely led interesting lives as pioneers of the American West. To tell the Turner story I've organized this document into sections accessed by clicking on the yellow buttons found at the top and bottom of each primary page. Clicking on many of the photos found on these pages will display a larger image (and sometimes clicking on the larger one will display an even larger one). Click the back button in your browser to return to the text page after enlarging a photo. Background When I first became seriously interested in my family history in the early 2000's I couldn't even recall the first or last names of my Turner ancestors (if I had ever known them to begin with). For reasons still not entirely clear, virtually no information about, or artifacts from, the Turner family had been passed on to me from my father and/or grandmother. I had a vague recollection that my grandmother had grown up in Idaho, perhaps on a cattle ranch, but that was my entire knowledge of this branch of my family.
It's not surprising that I didn't get much history from my grandmother regarding her parents as I grew up in New Jersey and my grandparents lived in Seattle. Due to the great distance that separated us, I only visited them a handful of times during my youth and never knew them well. On the other hand I never recall my father ever mentioning his Turner grandparents which, looking back at it, is a little strange as he often talked about his father's Ohio ancestors and relatives and knew his Hine uncle's, aunt, and cousins well. A reason for this may be because his mother rarely talked about her parents as he grew up and perhaps he never knew his Turner aunts, uncles, and cousins well, if at all. The Search For My Turner Ancestors Begins: In around 2002, while researching my late mother's ancestors, I was digging through her old artifacts when I came upon two small undated pages of short, cryptic notes in her handwriting regarding my father's mother and her parents. It is highly likely that these notes were written in 1942 shortly after my parents married and when mother first traveled from New Jersey to Seattle to meet her new in-laws, Rose Bell Turner-Hine and Homer Henry Hine. Here is a translation of my mother's handwriting, as best as I can tell. Notes in [brackets] are mine:
In August of 2003 I visited my then 92 year old aunt, Ruth Hine-Darling (daughter of Rose Belle Turner-Hine and sister of my father), at her Leavenworth, WA home. I was surprised to learn that she didn't know much about her Turner grandparents either and, like my father, had passed on little to her children (my 1st cousins). Ruth was able to confirm the names of her grandparents as Edward John Turner and Martha Catherine Hillman-Turner, that they had lived in Idaho, and she provided the names of their children from memory as Rose, Edward, Frederick, Lillian, and Elizabeth (Bess). My research has shown that there was a third son, Percy, and I have been unable to confirm the existence of Elizabeth who doesn't show up in any census records and is not mentioned in any of the other information I've uncovered. Perhaps she died young or Ruth was thinking of another relative on her father's side of the family, Elizabeth (Bess) Hine-Cates. While at my aunt's I found in her family photo collection, which mostly contain photos of her Hine ancestors, individual photographic portraits labeled as being of Edward and Martha Turner (which I've included on this page). These are the only likenesses of them that I know of. Other than these two photos Ruth apparently had no artifacts passed on from her Turner grandparents. Finally, Ruth had a 1967 obituary for her mother which indicated that Rose "was raised in Soda Springs, Idaho". Upon learning the name of my great grandfather it became clear that my father, Edward Kirtland Hine (and therefore myself as Edward Kirtland Hine, Jr.), had his first name passed on from his grandfather Edward J. Turner as the name Edward appears nowhere on his father's Hine side of the family. In the spring of 2005, with nothing more than the information outlined above, I set out to learn all I could about my Turner great-grandparents. On-and-off over several years I expended a good deal of time and energy on the project and have learned a great deal. Much time has been spent on the Internet checking everything from census records, to cemetery records, to homestead records. I've exchanged numerous e-mails and some letters with genealogy volunteers in Idaho, county clerks, and government archivists in Idaho, Washington state, and more recently Wisconsin. I've searched libraries records and books, historical society records, and newspaper records. Several trips to two different Mormon operated Family History Centers have been made. In July of 2006 I visited two locations in Idaho: Grace where the Turner Ranch was located and Jerome where Martha is buried along with son Edward. Then in October of 2008 I visited Turner grave sites in Wisconsin. In the process I've learned a great deal about the lives of Edward and Martha Turner and their children. I've also been able to identify Edward's parents and siblings in Wisconsin. A lot of sometimes frustrating detective work has been involved including many leads successfully followed-up on and others which lead to dead ends. Cousin Dick Turner Genealogical research is full of frustrations and rewards. One of these rewards came unexpectedly in 2007. Till then, everything I'd learned regarding the Turner's was theoretical and second hand by which I mean it was based entirely on historical records, census data, and other written documents. I knew of no living Turner's descendents from other branches of the family to communicate with regarding our common ancestors. It had been easy to calculate that all of Edward's and Martha's children had long since passed away and that probably their grandchildren had likely passed away being of my father's generation. With Turner being such a common name, there was no way for me to identify and contact the 3rd generation of descendents. So, the entire Turner family lived entirely on paper as far as I was concerned. In September of 2007 I contacted the Rock County Genealogical Society in Janesville, WI to ask for copies of any records they may have had regarding Edward's parents who I'd traced back to that area. In early October I received a large manila envelope from them containing some great information regarding the Wisconsin Turners (which Is presented in a separate biography of Edward's parents John and Margaret Turner). As I did a quick initial look at the envelope's contents I came upon a copy of a letter. It was written to the genealogical society by Richard D. Turner and dated in Sept. of 1994, 13 years before. The letter was asking for pretty much the same information that I was regarding Edward and his parents. I was somewhat taken aback and said to myself, "who is Richard D. Turner". A quick check of my family tree software showed that he was a grandson of Edward J. and Martha Turner, the son of their son Edward H. Turner. This made him my father's first cousin (one that I suspect father never knew existed) and my first cousin once removed. I'd only previously identified Richard D. Turner's name from his father's 1949 Jerome, ID obituary and 1930 census data. My data showed he was born about 1927 so in 2007 when I received the letter he would have been about 80 years old.
The letter had a return address in Memphis, TN and a phone number. I immediately picked up my phone and called hoping the number was still good. "Dick" Turner answered and I'm sure initially thought I was a telemarketer when I introduced myself as his first cousin once removed. After asking me to repeat my name he thought for a second and then said something to the effect of "are you aunt Rose and uncle Homer's son" to which I replied "no, I'm their grandson". Since Dick had spent time some years before following more or less the same route I had in tracing our common Turner ancestors, we quickly hit it off and had plenty to talk about. Dick indicated that he had only met his aunt Rose and uncle Homer Hine once. When he was mustered out of the Navy in 1946 following the end of World War II near Seattle he had called the Hine's and spent a little time with them while arranging transportation back to his home in Jerome, ID. He had never met his Hine first cousins Kirt Hine (my father) nor Ruth Hine-Darling (my aunt) as both had already married and left home long before his visit in Seattle. Dick and I talked on the phone several times since first getting acquainted in 2007 and exchanged emails and information regarding our common ancestors Edward and Martha Turner and Edward's parents in Wisconsin. Then in October 2008 when I drove from my Colorado home to the east coast and back I stopped and visited Dick and his wife at their home in Memphis. (After obtaining an engineering degree after WWII in the west, Dick had taken a job in Memphis and lived there most of his adult life.) So, in addition to the other sources I've researched, this will include information I've obtained from Dick Turner who, while being one generation closer to Edward and Martha then I (he being their grandson and me their great grandson), didn't know Edward John Turner at all having been born 11 years after his 1916 death, and barely knew Martha Hillman Turner who passed away in 1935 when Dick was 7 years old. I'll present the Turner story in more or less chronological order (which has no relationship to the order in which I researched and obtained the information). Where relevant I'll site sources and present and/or make available supporting documents and links to additional information. A few introductory notes regarding names: Regarding Martha Hillman-Turner's maiden name: both my mother's note and some limited information I found at my aunt's spell her maiden name as Hilman (with one "L"). On the other hand a Stevens County, WA marriage record for the Turners clearly spells the name Hillman (with two "L's"). Also, World War I Draft Registration Records show that son Frederick's middle name was Hillman spelled with the double "L". Finally, I've found that the Hilman spelling is very rare while Hillman is common. I have thus chosen to use the Hillman spelling. At various places throughout this biography I've alternately used the names Edward, Edward J., and E.J. to refer to my great-grandfather. This is due in part to the fact that the historical references I've uncovered refer to him in these different ways. Also, including the "J" helps to differentiate him from his son Edward H. Turner. I've also run into one instance where Edward J. Turner refers to himself as "Eddie".
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