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Sardis H. Turner
Minnesota
Sardis Henry Turner, one of the prominent farmers of Osborne township, Pipestone County, Minnesota, made his location on the southwest quarter of section 8, March 16, 1878, taking his place as a homestead. On reaching his new home he at once commenced active operations, breaking some ten acres of land and erecting a sod shanty in which he lived for a number of years. In 1884 he built a comfortable dwelling-house, and has continued to make other improvements, until now his farm is provided with good buildings and everything necessary to comfort and successful management.
The first year he had five acres of corn, but the grasshoppers succeeded in harvesting the crop before he did, thus causing the loss of all the time and labor which he had bestowed in seeding and cultivating. Ever since he resided in the township he exhibited considerable enterprise in building up the welfare of his locality and surrounded himself with a large circle of friends. He was one among the earliest settlers and assisted in the organization of the township in the spring of 1879.
He served as township treasurer and was one of the first to hold that position. There were but few in the township when he made his location there. Among these were A. D. Kingsbury, A. A. Dodge, George Spalding, E. W. Day, M. N. Gunsolas and Mrs. Ann Day.
He was born in Lewis County, New York, February 5, 1837. His father was Henry Turner, a native of Onondaga county, New York, and a blacksmith by trade, an occupation he followed throughout the greater part of his life. He came to Wisconsin in early days and for several years engaged principally in farming. His death occurred in the fall of 1878, at which time he was seventy-seven years old. He was an exemplary Christian and a member of the Baptist church. His mother of our subject was Rosetta B. Edwards, a native of Vermont. Early in her life she emigrated with her parents to Jefferson County, New York, where she met and married Henry Turner. She died February 9, 1889, at the age of seventy eight years. She was a a solid Christian lady and had her name enrolled in the records of the Baptist Church.
Sardis was the fifth of thirteen children. His siblings were Mary M., George E., Jane, John S., Charles M., Almon R., Alzo D., Melvin, Melvina C., Arletta, Lucetta R., Rosetta. While he was still quite young the parents removed to Rodman, Jefferson County, New York, where he received his early training and education, remaining until he was about seventeen years of age. He was of an exceedingly studious turn of mind, and advanced rapidly in his studies, receiving a certificate granting him the right to teach at the age of thirteen years.
Wisconsin
When he attained the age of seventeen his parents moved to Jefferson County, Wisconsin in the fall of 1854. Here he engaged in teaching school during the winter of the first year's residence and worked on a farm during the summer months. In the fall of 1855 he removed to Portage County, where he spent a number of years of farm-working during the summers and teaching school during the winter months of four years.
In November, 1863, he enlisted in Company H, First Wisconsin Cavalry, as a private on the Union side. Among the battles in which our subject engaged were, Cleveland, Lost Mountain, Hopkinsville, Kentucky, West Point, Atlanta, Georgia, Cartersville, and numerous other skirmishes and battles of minor importance. After his discharge at Nashville, Tennessee, in July, 1865, Mr. Turner returned to his home in Wisconsin and resumed teaching and farming and remained in Portage County until the fall of 1875. At that time he located in Saratoga, Winona County, Minnesota, where he remained engaged in various pursuits, principally that of teaching, for three years, then took his present place in Osborne Township, Pipestone County.
Sardis Henry Tuner was married on April 7, 1861, in Belmont, Portage County, Wisconsin to Miss Mary Jane Smith, who was born in Aroostook County, Maine, in 1842. This lady received her early training and education in the county of her nativity, where she remained until about twelve years of age, at which time she removed with her parents to Dane county, Wisconsin, where she completed her education. Later she moved with her parents to Belmont, Wisconsin, where she remained until her marriage. Miss Smith was a daughter of Stephen Smith and Martha J. (Lincoln) Smith, both of whom were natives of New Brunswick, the father being born in St. Johns in 1818, and the mother born in Frederickton in 1821. The parents were farmers by occupation and reared a large family of children including Thomas N., John L., Theodore L., Dorinda N., Martha Ann, Jeronia and Annetta, twins; Cordelia, George Washington, Amanda, Hannah Jane. Her parents were exemplary members of the Free Will Baptist church. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have five children—Edward Allen, Myron Aldro, Dora May, Marion and Martha A. Dora May married George Straw, May 16, 1886. Mr. Turner was a man of progressive ideas and of high moral character. Believing in the renovation of political parties he cut loose from his old affiliation with Republicanism and followed and supported of the principles and policy of the Prohibition Party. He is a thorough temperance man and believes in placing the government in the hands of the temperance people.
Among the positions of trust which he held in the township was that of treasurer, to which office he was been elected several times, being the first incumbent of that position in the town. In his successful farming operations Mr. Turner engaged in the stock-raising business, giving special attention to Durham cattle and blooded horses, owning some of the best animals of the Durham stock in the county.
Sardis Henry Turner Born Feb. 5, 1837, Pinckney Corners, Lewis County, New York
Died Mar. 16, 1907, Willow Springs, Howell County, Missouri
Civil War: 1st Wisconsin Cal., Company H 23 Nov 1863 - 19 July 1865 - Mustered Out Edgefield, TN
Remembrance of Early Days in Minnesota by Marion Turner
Daughter of Sardis H. Turner and sister of Edward Allen, Myron, Dora and Martha Turner
In October 1879 my father with his family settled in the southwestern part of Minnesota, in company with a little band of settlers who braved hardships incident to a pioneer life, he became identified with the development of the natural resources of that fertile tract of land known as Pipestone County. The names of these brave men have gone down in local history as the founders of the industrial and educational interests in that portion of the state. To their posterity are bequeathed unsullied reputations and habit of frugality and industry.
On our arrival we were welcomed by friends Mr. Day and family, who had gone there in the early spring. The home was the typical sod house of pioneer days. In the west, prairie timber was used exclusively in its construction with the exception of roof and joists. Its two apartments were on the “ground floor” in the strictest sense of the term, there being no flooring except that afforded by nature. One of the first Sunday schools in the county was conducted by the family, also a day school taught by Mrs. Ann H. Day, occasionally a preacher traveled fifteen or eighteen miles to favor us with a sermon, frequently referring to the necessary presentation of the Gospel along the frontier.
The winter of 79-80 was a very mild climate. Had it been otherwise, there the must have been great suffering from the scarcity of fuel. Coal and wood were at exorbitant prices. The majority of people bunched willows that skirted the small creeks, or twisted the pliable slough hay into semblance of old manure doughnuts for fuel.
For a distance of nearly twenty-five miles, houses dotted the bluffs or nestled in the quiet valleys near the shores of the Rock River. Here we sometimes encountered the few Red men who frequented this region for the purpose of trapping muskrats. We caught glimpses of the squaw at work in the open air, saw little papoose frolicking on nature’s coverlet as if it were the softest plied moquette. Later on, we found pieces of the red pipestone and a pair of rude shears left where they undoubtedly camped, during their sojourn to the celebrated Pipestone Quarry, which was then as now the mecca of the Red Men, and to which they still make a yearly pilgrimage.
They assert that it is the only material in the world from which they can carve their pipes, hatchets, and articles innumerable, designed and executed with such marvelous skill. This quarry is but three quarters of a mile from the growing city of Pipestone, and has gained for the region considerable fame.
The native soils of the locality abounded in hay lands just as that of other sections abounded in forests. For years, prairie fires wrought great devastation every autumn. At night the great tongues of flame appeared like broad bands of scarlet ribbons, stretching away for many miles. Woe to the settlers property if unprotected by firebreaks, fish were plentiful and by fishing through the ice, great numbers were obtained. For months they formed a staple article of food. The surplus was exchanged for groceries on the rare trips made to (Venue), our nearest post office and trading post point for salt down for use, when fish was twenty miles away in the adjoining county Rock less plentiful. Minute pudding and sour gravy was frequently on our menu as well as on the tables of other settlers. Many families subsisted chiefly of corn meal, while others were actually reduced to the necessity of grinding wheat in a coffee mill to avoid the pangs of hunger during the frequent blizzards when getting to mill was an utter impossibility.
In March 1880, we moved to a farm on 160 acres in which my father had filed a soldier’s pre-emption. It was a fertile tract of land intersected by a branch of the Rock River. Our home was a “dug out” lighted by one small window. The flat roof was covered with course hay called blue point,. Here we live until the following July when heavy rains inundated the river and the sullen waters crept in our door threatening destruction to our home and household goods, which necessitated the removal of then to higher grounds. Father and brothers absent from a slight eminence, we watched the tide devour its prey, realizing the desolation of hundreds of fellow men whose homes have been devastated by a foe that they were powerless to repel.
At the time, the first railroad through that vicinity was being constructed, the survey intersecting a part of my father’s farm. The workmen encamped near the stream were put to rout during the night by the floods. In the morning many wandered over the county searching for stray horses, while a rescue party bent on recovery of lost pies and other tempting edible, floated down the river in a wagon box. My father rented a house for his family and with my eldest brother, Edward Turner, who was but sixteen years of age worked out to obtain the means of a livelihood. Both experienced the fatigue of a summer toil, and the deprivation of a large amount of their earnings by dishonest employers.
When enabled that autumn to erect the frame of a new house and wall it up brick fashion with wide fresh sods, were we not thankful indeed. It was our own and represented no small amount of toil and self-sacrifice. It contained one large room, nearly square, with an attic chamber, a lean to for a kitchen, living room for parents partitioned by a curtain, the gable ends were of boards, as were the floors and interior walls. Three windows and a door furnished light and air, bedrooms were partitioned off with curtains.
A lady of wealth from Chicago, visiting in the neighborhood, came some distance to view the novel dwelling with the sunsets golden beams resting upon the folding petals of the wilds roses which adorned the grass grown walls, its exterior presented a pleasing picture indeed.
On the night of Oct. 11th, 1891, occurred the October blizzard, an event often recalled by the settlers. The atmosphere was warm, but the fine snow sifted quietly through the tiniest crevice of every building. Many head of livestock in stables and on the open plain were nearly smothered by their snowbound environment and many perished. The winter was one of deep snow. Trains were blockaded and communication with the outer world was for a time suspended. My father hauled flour from Hatfield, a little station which had sprung up with the railroad four and half miles distant on a common hand sled. The mode of transportation was later on adopted by our neighbors until teams could be gotten out. Prosperity slowly followed the years of adversity as the seasons rewarded these workers for their toil.
Pleasant homes and well-tilled farms now dot the hillsides and valley where once the virgin soil lay untouched by the plowshares or resounded to the tread of fleet-footed der. Schools which are the (pper) of olden settled regions diffuse learning under flays thrown proudly to the breeze and which declare that common schools are the hope of our country.
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Sources: Biography of Southwest Minnesota 1889 and Diary of Marion Turner
Additonal Resources Sardis H. Turner Civil War Record