MERRITT TURNER, Port Jervis, New York.
One of the hale and hearty veterans of the Delaware Division of the Erie is Merritt Turner, who counts many years of faithful service to his credit and who, barring the unforeseen, may well expect to place many more years on his record. Born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on December 9, 1838, he worked on the home farm and attended school up to the age of 17, when he secured employment as brakeman on the Gravity Railroad (now no more) between Pittston and Hawley, where he remained for seven years, five of them as brakeman and two as conductor. In the meantime, however, he volunteered, in 1862, as a nine months' man in the 179th Pennsylvania, the regiment being assigned to Keyes' Corps -- the 4th -- and was part of the garrison of Fort Yorktown for seven months, putting in the remainder of the enlistment period in marching, so that if he did not see actual fighting he certainly did see hard service.

Returning to the Gravity Railroad at the expiration of his army experience, he remained there until 1865, but as his ambition was to become an engineer he came to Port Jervis in May, 1865, and began work on the Erie as a fireman. He continued as fireman, with a brief interim, until the early part of 1867, when he was promoted to engineer. However, during his service as fireman, and when he had been only ten months employed in that position, he commenced to run extra. On the day he was made engineer he was given a regular run, and a daylight run, at that, being put in charge of a coal train. This run he kept for a year, when he was given full charge of a gravel train as conductor and engineer, receiving in addition to his regular wages as engineer, fifty cents a day extra for his services as conductor. For a year and a half he held down this train and was then given a coal train between Port Jervis and Honesdale, which he retained for a year, passing then to a regular freight run, No. 25 west and the stock train east, which he kept until 1882, early in which year he was placed in passenger service and so continued until 1891, in which year he was made Road Foreman of Engines at Port Jervis, a position he filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to the company until September, 1898, when he was, at his own request, sent out on the road again, and now has Nos. 3 and 8, the fast limited trains, his engine being the 821, a class "0" Baldwin.

Mr. Turner has one son, Van Etten Turner, who is now following his father's footsteps by learning the machinist's trade in the Erie shops at Port Jervis. Made a Mason in 1860 at Hawley, Mr. Turner is now a member of Port Jervis Lodge No. 328, F. & A. M., and is also a member of Neversink Chapter of the Royal Arch degree, at the same place. He also belongs to the Knights of Honor, his lodge being No. 1009, of Port Jervis. He takes no active interest in politics, further than to perform the duty of every good citizen. His tastes are eminently domestic, and he passes most of the time when not on duty in his comfortable home on Hudson street, Port Jervis, and does not give himself up to undue worriment as to the present or future.

Mr. Turner has not escaped altogether unharmed during his long term of service. Once, on the Gravity Railroad, his leg was caught between two cars in a wreck and though not crushed it has never ceased to give him slight trouble, which, however, does not seem to increase as he grows older. Again, on the Erie, and on the same ground where the train went down the bank at Shohola, his engine literally flew to pieces when he was running fifty-five miles an hour. Mr. Turner was shut into the cab, but climbed on top of the boiler, applied the air brake, and found when the train was stopped that there were no rods left to his engine. That he may long continue in active service without repeating this experience is the hope of his many friends.

Excerpted from: "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," H.R. Romans Editor; Crawford-Adsit Company Publishers, Chicago, IL 1899.

From the Hornellsville Weekly Times, October 15, 1886
Yesterday morning between 11 and 12 o'clock train 6 over the Delaware Division of the Erie was bowling along at a high rate of speed about two miles this side of Parker's Glen, when Engineer Merritt Turner saw a handsome buck deer on the track, about a quarter of a mile ahead of him. The tracks at this point run for miles along the side of the mountain, its precipitous sides being on the south side and the Delaware River on the north, 30 feet below the level of the track. The deer could not climb the mountain and evidently did not relish the idea of making the jump of thirty feet, so it increased its speed and bounded away down the track ahead of the approaching train. Engineer Turner took in the situation and throwing his engine wide open started after the alfrighted animal. It was lungs and wind against steam and axel grease, and the latter won. The deer was overtaken and the monster locomotive threw the poor creature with great force against the rocks, fatally injuring it. The train men cut the animal's throat, threw the carcas on the pilot of the locomotive and took it to Port Jervis. It was divided among the train men and they will live on most of it the next week.
(Reprinted from the Elmira Gazette)

1900 U.S. Census, Port Jervis, NY, Supervisor's District 10, Enum. Distr. 10, Sheet 17
47 Hudson Street, Deer Park:
Merritt Turner, Head, Born Dec., 1838, age 61, born in Pennsylvania, Parents born in Pennsylvania, Loco Engineer
Phoebe J. Turner, Wife, Born Feb., 1840, Married 35 years (one child, still living), born in Pennsylvania, Parents born in Pennsylvania

From the September 16, 1905 issue of The New York Times
Elmira, Sept. 15 -- An Erie train rushed by the Deposit station at 3 o'clock this morning with a dead man's hands stretched toward the throttle. Merritt Turner of Port Jervis, one of the veteran engineers of the Erie, had died between a block four miles east of the station and the place where the train should have stopped.

Turner was all right at the block when Conductor Conner of this city talked with him. When the train did not slow down for the station the conductor knew that something had gone wrong and he stopped the train by applying the emergency brakes placed in the passenger coaches. Trainmen rushed to the engine and found the fireman trying to break in the door of the cab. Turner's dead body was on the seat, and his hand was outstretched toward the throttle.

The train was going about forty-five miles an hour, and carried an unusually large number of passengers. Turner was 65 years of age.

From the November, 1905 issue of the Locomotive Engineers' Monthly Journal, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers:
Port Jervis, NY, died Sept. 15, Brother Merritt Turner, member of Div. 54. (There was no listing of him in the adjacent insurance table, indicating that he may not have taken out an insurance policy from the B of LE).

From the December, 1905 issue of Erie Railroad Magazine
The following named Engineers have been assigned to Delaware Division runs: M.F. Fritz, 1 and 14 in place of S. Lucky, who goes to Deposit to run a pusher; J. Kane, 7 and 1 in place of the late Merritt Turner.