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.
History of Mercer County, PA, 1888, pages 831-830
