California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


LEVI N. TURNER. In no part of the United States is a more correct appreciation 
placed upon personal valor and courage than in the west. Possibly conflict with the red men of 
the plains, with pioneer conditions startling in their crudeness, and with the terrible journey 
across the prairies and mountains in the early days, are too closely allied with the present to 
permit of laxity in giving to each man his due where aught of generosity has been required of 
his nature. It thus happens that the soldier comes into his own again as he gathers around 
the camp-fires. He is given warm greeting because of his experiences when he embarks in 
trade, and at all times carries with him the sense of security in the people's esteem, which must 
needs warm his heart and inspire him with love for all mankind. Such a one is Levi N. Turner, a 
soldier of the Civil war, who is also a successful hardware merchant of Delano, and whose many 
fine traits of character have contributed to the moral and general upbuilding of whatever region 
he has called home. 

Behind his honored name and successful career Mr. Turner has an ancestry which claims a voy- 
ageur of the Mayflower, and early bearers of the name settled in what now is Turner, Me. From 
Androscoggin county later members moved to Milo, Piscataquis county, where Levi N. was 
born April 4, 1838, and where his father, Lyman, was reared and learned the carpenter trade. In 
early life the father married a Miss Flanders, also a native of Maine, and with her and his children 
removed overland to Wisconsin in 1845. Settling in Dodge county in the midst of a dense timber 
district, he cleared a small farm, improved it to general produce, and lived upon it until locating 
in Faribault county, Minn., in 1873. He conducted a fairly successful grocery business in 
Minnesota for a few years, and died there in 1893, at the age of eighty-eight years. During 
the Civil war he was a member of the Home Guard. His wife lived to be seventy-five years old. 

Levi N. Turner was seven years old when the family removed to Wisconsin, and remained there 
until 1865, in the meantime acquiring a common school education, and learning the carpenter 
trade. In Blue Earth county, Minn., he followed carpentering for five years, and in 1870 engaged 
in a general merchandise business in Winnebago City, remaining there four years. Afterward he 
erected a flouring mill in Blue Earth county, operated it successfully for ten years, and upon 
disposing of it in 1892, took up his residence in California in his present home in Delano. He 
has found the hardware and implement business lucrative and congenial, and has invested his 
earnings in paying quarters, owning ten acres in his home place, forty acres six miles south, and 
one hundred and sixty acres seven miles north of Delano. His home place, on the outskirts of 
the town, has a pleasant and comfortable residence, with flowers, shrubs and trees, which con- 
tribute to the beauty and pleasure of life in this delightful state. In the meantime he has taken 
a keen interest in the general affairs of the town, has been more or less prominent in politics, and 
has been especially helpful in organizing the board of trade, and in serving as its vice-president. 
He has been a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen since 1876. 

The war experience of Mr. Turner stands out in bold relief among the incidents which have 
made his life interesting and useful to his fellowmen. He was working in the lumber camps in 
Wisconsin when the war broke out, and October 14, 1861, enlisted as a private in Company F, 
Twelfth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and participated in many of the battles ; served with 
Grant in the western army, and with Sherman on his march to the sea. In front of Atlanta, Ga., 
he was wounded in both thighs by the same ball, and was laid up in the hospital at Rome. Ga,, 
from July 21, 1864, until the following October. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1863, 
and to first lieutenant in 1865. and might have received still further honors, had he been able 
to rejoin his regiment in January, following his release from the hospital. Mr. Turner established 
a home ere success had begun to come his way, marrying Mar)- E. Weaver, a native of New 
York ; they have had three children, two of whom are deceased., Florence E., the wife of Rev. 
W. L. Miller, residing in Litchfield, Conn., is the only child living.