Turner, James

James Turner biography, West Feliciana Parish, LA
submitted by: Pam Sulze

The Revolutionary War was coming to an end when JAMES TURNER and his twin brother NELSON TURNER were born on September 12, 1782 in Loudoun Co., Virginia. They were the fourth and fifth sons born to LEWIS ELLZEY TURNER (1754-1823) and THEODOSIA PAYNE (1751-1823). LEWIS ELLZEY TURNER had participated in the War of Independence and received several hundred acres in Kentucky land grants as payment for his service. James was only four in 1786 when his father moved the family westward to start a new life in Kentucky. They joined a large extended-family group headed by Theodosia's parents, EDWARD PAYNE and ANN HOLLAND CONYERS, that traveled along the Wilderness Road and across the Cumberland Mountains to the Blue Grass country of Kentucky. By 1800 the families had acquired grants totaling over 50,000 acres. It was here, near Lexington, Fayette Co., Kentucky, that James grew up and was educated in the law.

As a young man of 23, James was drawn by the promise of opportunity created by the Louisiana Purchase. He left Kentucky and moved south into Spanish West Florida where in 1805 he laid claim to 550 acres near St. Francisville, Louisiana. His twin brother Nelson and younger sister THEODOSIA TURNER remained in Lexington with their parents and grandparents. Older brothers HENRY TURNER and EDWARD TURNER settled in Natchez, and FIELDING LEWIS TURNER settled in New Orleans.

James became a typical country lawyer involved in agriculture as well as the practice of law. He was also involved in government, serving in the Legislature of the Territory of Orleans, participating in the 1812 petition to Congress asking that Feliciana be incorporated into the new state of Louisiana, and later, acting as a member of the House of Representatives from West Feliciana Parish. The beginning of an organized bar in Louisiana did not occur until March 1813, over a year after statehood. Fifty-six attorneys were sworn in that year. James was one of only four who did not live in New Orleans. Why he chose to establish his practice in the country rather than the convenience of the city I do not know, but it appears he served his clients well, aided by a library that totaled almost 700 volumes.

The demand for cotton in the north enabled the town of St. Francisville to prosper and grow. A public library was founded in 1816 when James and a group of citizens incorporated the St. Francisville Library Company “for the laudable purpose of improving the literature and general knowledge of the parish.” Another early institution, The Feliciana Masonic Lodge No. 46, of St. Francisville was chartered in 1817 by the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. James was a charter member of the lodge and the following year he served as Master of the Lodge.

James was well into his thirties when he met and married ANNE SMITH BOWMAN in 1819 in Baton Rouge. She was 20 years old and the only child of PETER BOWMAN and MARGARET BOYER of Pennsylvania. The ceremony was officiated by WILLIAM JENNISON, a lay reader from Boston, who served the early Episcopal Congregation of East Baton Rouge. Anne was born in Washington D.C. in 1799 and the family was recorded there in the 1800 census. However, PETER BOWMAN died sometime between 1800 and 1812, his place of death unknown. It was also during these early years before statehood that Margaret, Anne, and possibly even Peter, made their way to Louisiana. The first record of the family living in the area was a deed of sale dated September 18, 1812, Attakapas District, in which Margaret bought two slaves, RICHARD and JENNY, from AZARIAH C. DUNN, a hotelier in St. Martinville. Interestingly enough, in February 1813 Margaret married Azariah, and around 1815 the family moved to Baton Rouge. This is where Anne met JAMES TURNER.

After their marriage, James and Anne made their home in West Feliciana Parish and in 1825 Margaret and Azariah followed them there. Azariah opened The Planter's Hotel in St. Francisville in September of that year. By the end of the 1820s Anne had given birth to her first five children: LEWIS ELLZEY (1820), MARGARET THEODOSIA (1823), JAMES PIRRIE (1824), ANNE FIELDING (1826), and EVELINA THEODOSIA (1828). However, in August of 1827 Margaret, age 3, and James, age 2, died within a week of each other, undoubtedly from one of the “fevers” that often plagued south Louisiana. In 1825 James had gone into partnership with ISAAC JOHNSON and was practicing law in the parish courts of Pointe Coupee, East and West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge and in the Supreme Court in New Orleans. One of his clients was RACHEL O'CONNER of West Feliciana whose letters have been published in two books about her life: Mistress of Evergreen Plantation (Webb, Allie Bayne Windham) and Rachel of Old Louisiana (Craven, Avery O.). James would act as Rachel's attorney and friend for fifteen years counseling her during her on-going legal struggle with WILLIAM FLOWER who held a debt against her deceased son.

JAMES TURNER and his family were members of Grace EpiscopalChurch in St. Francisville. The parish was organized in 1827 and the church completed at the end of 1828. The first rector was The Rev. WILLIAM ROBERT BOWMAN. James was a member of the vestry in 1829 and in June 1840 the Turner children were baptized at the church by The Rev. DANIEL S. LEWIS. Mrs. ELIZA PIRRIE BOWMAN, Dr. WALKER and N.C. HALL acted as sponsors of the children.

In 1827 James expanded his agricultural interests considerably buying 806 acres of land “with buildings and improvements, with all corn and fodder, 1 wagon and gear, 6 horses, 2 oxen, 15 ploughs and gear, 13 hoes, 9 axes, 1 grindstone and 15 slaves.” for $20,696 from JOSIAS GRAY. This plantation that he called “The Home Place” was located on Alexander Creek and bounded by the plantations of THOMAS BUTLER, LUTHER L. SMITH, and the heirs of BRYAN McDERMOTT. Times were prosperous then and in 1830 the census showed James had 47 slaves at work. However, hard times were coming. A depression that reached national scope had begun in the late 1820s reaching a peak in the mid-1830s. By 1837 James was forced to mortgage “The Home Place” to The Union Bank of New Orleans for $20,000. In 1838 he had to borrow again - $5000 from The Bank of Louisiana securing the debt with “'The Home Place', 806 acres on Alexander Creek, 51 slaves, a house and 2 lots in St. Francisville, 542 acres on Thompson's Creek and another 60 acres adjoining the town lots.”

But life went on. James was busy in the courts of several parishes and traveled a great deal. Anne had five more children in the 1830s: MARGARET BOWMAN (1830), LUCY GRAY (1832), twins PENELOPE and EDWARD BOWMAN (1833), and WILLIAM ROBERT BOWMAN (1838), named after The Rev. Bowman who had died in 1835. But once again, two more of their children died within a week of each other. In September 1839 Lucy Gray, age 7, and Penelope, one of the twins, age 5, died of scarlet fever. Anne had also lost her mother, Margaret, in May 1830, and Azariah committed suicide in November 1831. RACHEL O'CONNOR described the event in Mistress of Evergreen Plantation: “Mr. Dunn, who formerly kept a boarding house in St. Francisville, shot his own brains out with a pistol Monday last. I have not heard the cause of his doing so yet.” My own research has not revealed the answer to that question either.

In August 1839 URIAH BURR PHILLIPS of New York came to West Feliciana and began reading for the law under JAMES TURNER. Family tradition says that James hired Uriah as a tutor for his children in exchange for teaching Uriah the law, and that during his apprenticeship Uriah fell in love with Evelina, James' second daughter. Whether or not this love story is true we'll never know, but it appears in the 1840 census that Uriah was living in the Turner household. The census also shows that by then James had 74 slaves, suggesting that he had managed to maintain his plantation during the depression of the 1830s and that he had the means to support a tutor for his children. Uriah was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1842.

Little did anyone know just how important URIAH BURR PHILLIPS would become to the Turner family, for in 1844 this man from New York would unexpectedly become the patriarch of their family. JAMES TURNER had fallen ill and died on December 16, 1843. He was 61 years old. RACHEL O'CONNOR mentions his death in a letter dated December 22, 1843: “It appears very sickly throughout this neighborhood. DAVID JOHNSON, SAMUEL DALTON, JAMES FLOWER, DR. BAINS, MR. JAMES TURNER, and MR. SAMUEL MCCALEB all died very lately and many others that I do not know. Indeed it appears to be a general time of mourning in our parish.

When James died he left Anne, age 44, with a large mortgage against their property and 4 children still at home. Uriah immediately came to the aid of the family and it is evident in the documents of the probate sale that he acted with Anne and her 23 year-old son Lewis in paying off much of the debt. But he was not acting as just a friend, for on January 11, 1844, just a month after James' death, Uriah married Evelina. She was three months shy of her 16th birthday. In this way they carried on. Uriah had been taught well by JAMES TURNER. He became a successful attorney in his own right, he was a member of the Louisiana legislature, and was charged with rewriting the Statutes of Louisiana in 1856. Uriah and Evelina had seven children, one of them was my grandfather, ROBERT BOWMAN PHILLIPS, who was born in 1854.

JAMES TURNER, his wife Anne, URIAH BURR PHILLIPS, his wife Evelina, and most of their children are buried in the cemetery at Grace Episcopal Church. Following generations of the family moved from St. Francisville, but we will always remember the stories of our ancestors who lived there so long ago.