Turner, Oaks

Born: 1808-XX-XX Oxford County, Maine

Flourished: Hennepin, Illinois

Turner emigrated from his native state to Illinois in 1834, settling in Hennepin. In the summer of 1835, he erected and operated a carding machine for the firm of Fairfield & Leeper on the Little Bureau River above Leepertown, the second enterprise of this kind in Putnam County. He also purchased approximately 400 acres of public land in the area, which he transformed into a farm. An accountant with excellent penmanship, Turner received appointment as Putnam county clerk in 1836 and circuit clerk in 1838, which office he held until 1847. In 1847, he represented Putnam County at the Illinois state constitutional convention. In the spring of 1848, Putnam county voters elected him county treasurer. In 1850, Turner was farming and owned real estate valued at $6,300. He won re-election as county treasurer in 1855 and again in 1857. Turner left public service in 1859, retiring to his farm. By 1860, he owned real property valued at $13,600 and a personal estate of $2,065. In 1840, he married Rebecca Butler, with whom he had five children.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Marshall County, 709:80, 85: 818:31, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Putnam County, IL, 371; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Hennepin, Putnam County, IL, 44; Spencer Ellsworth, Records of the Olden Time; or, Fifty Years on the Prairies (Lacon, IL: Home Journal Steam Printing, 1880), 641-42.