ALLEN
TURNER, lumber dealer, etc., was born in Warren County, Penn.,
October 18, 1821, and is a son of Marcus and Sarah (Stevens) Turner,
the former a native of Massachusetts, born February 12, 1794, and the
latter of Vermont. Mr. Turner’ s grandfather, Abraham Turner, of
Massachusetts, was one of the soldiers who erected the fort at the
mouth of French Creek, on the site of Franklin, Penn. , and also that
on the site of Meadville, Penn., after the purchase of this territory
from the Indians. He subsequently returned to Massachusetts, and there
died. Marcus Turner grew up in that State, and thence came to
Meadville, Penn. , where he married Sarah Stephens and settled on a
farm in Warren County, Penn. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. In
1847 he removed to Chautauqua County, N. Y. , where he still resides,
and enjoys good health, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. His
wife died in Greenville while on a visit to her son Allen, in March,
1869. They were the parents of seven children, five of whom are living.
One of the daughters, Mrs. Orpha Hammond, is a well-known pioneer
educator of Pennsylvania and New York States, and for about one year
was editor of the Times (now Argus), of Greenville. Our subject was the
oldest son in the family, grew to manhood in Warren County, Penn., and
was there married August 19, 1849, to Miss Mary E. Shipman, of Erie
County, Penn., and a native of Madison County, N. Y. Mr. Turner
followed the lumber business up to his removal to Sharon in June, 1852,
where he went into the stove and tin-ware business, having the only
store in that line in the borough at that time. In 1856 he removed to
Kinsman, Ohio, where he continued business. Finding that Kinsman was
not sufficiently flourishing for his business enterprise, he came, in
1859, to Greenville and purchased the store building of Achre,
Bittenbanner & Co. on Main Street, the upper story of which was
then occupied by his sister, Mrs. Hammond, in publishing the Times. In
the spring of 1860 he located in the borough, and opened a stove and
tin-ware store in the same building which he has ever since been
interested in, and which his two sons and son-in-law now occupy. He
also carried on a book and wall-paper store in the same building up to
1865, when he sold out, being the only dealer in that line in
Greenville during his term of business. In 1865 he purchased 800 acres
of timber lands on the head-waters of the Shenango River, which stream
had been declared, by the act of 1803, navigable to its source, and
cleaned out up to Greenville. Mr. Turner cleaned out the bed of the
stream from Greenville to his purchase, a distance of from thirty-dye
to forty-five miles. For the succeeding eighteen years he rafted his
logs to Greenville, where he had erected extensive sawmills, and cut
them into lumber, producing about 1,000,000 feet annually. His mill was
burned in 1881, but he remained in the business until 1883. Mr. Turner,
in 1870, started the first tree and small fruit nursery in this portion
of the county, which he sold out in 1873, when he had 50, 000 valuable
roots. He was one of the men who was instrumental in having the rolling
mills located in Greenville, and also the Pearce Woolen Mills, and one
of the leading spirits in having Thiel College brought to the place.
Since 1865 he has been engaged in the lumber business, and has been one
of the most successful financiers of this part of the county. Mrs.
Turner died in the Methodist Episcopal faith November 18, 1878, leaving
a family of three children: Julius Fillmore, Elmer Allen and Edith, all
of whom are living. Mr. Turner was again married August 23, 1883, to
Miss Margaret Sheriff, of Mercer, a member of the Presbyterian Church.
He is a Republican in politics, and has been burgess of Greenville one
term. His mother was a relative of President Fillmore, and Hon. Jabe
Sutherland, judge in Utah Territory, while his brother Oren is a
prominent attorney of the Chicago bar.
Source: (History of Mercer County, 1888, pages 830-831)
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