Turner and Mary Jane Howell
Turner was born in 1831 to Dempsey and Sarah Howell in Monroe County GA. Farming and land speculation were the vocation of his father. He was born during a turbulent time, the removal of all southern indian tribes was beginning and the vacumn created a land rush.
Not much is known about his early years, the first records indicate he was nine years old at the time of the 1840 census. Sarah his mother is shown as head of household, a later pension application indicates that his fasther Dempsey had died in 1840. His brother Joseph was married in 1845 in Crawford county and then the family appear on the 1850 census in Barbour County Al.
Turner married Mary Jane Wise in 1854 at her fathers home. Turner was a farmer of his own land as well as an overseer for a prosperous plantation owner in Barbour County. Turner is mentioned favorably many times in the farm journals kept by the plantation owner John Horry Dent.
Turner volunteered for service during the civil war and served in the 4th Ala cavalry Battalion. He was wounded during July of 1864 while serving in North Carolina with the Jeff Davis Calvary Legion, a Mississippi unit which joined with several Georgia and Alabama companys during the summer of 1864. Pension application records indicate that he suffered an injury to his leg. He later served with a Lovard Lee's Home Guard unit, a local military unit made up of older men, young boys or veterans with injuries.
Turner and Mary Jane had a total of ten children, three boys and seven girls. My Great Grandfather Robert Lee Howell was the youngest son born in 1871. Turner also adopted a son in 1896 named Grover Clevland Lowery from the Methodist Childrens home in Sylacauga Alabama. Court records indicate that his named was legally changed to Grover Clevland Howell. Not much is known about the circumstances of this adoption or the whereabouts of Grover after Turners death in 1909.
Turner and his brothers Joseph, Washington and their mother Sarah all setteled in Barbour County in a triangle of land roughly bordered by three roads, on the north is State Hwy 30 (The Clayton Hwy.), to the west is County Road 79 and to the south Sardis Church Road. Howell Creek bisects this area becoming Cheyneehatchee creek after crossing Sardis Church Road and continues on to the Chattahoochee river.
Mary Jane passed away in 1907 and Turner in 1909. I do not have any photographs of either but their headstones are posted on the Cemetery photos page.