My Genealogy Hound

James Turner, one of the largest and most enterprising merchants of Northeast Missouri, was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire County, England, in 1839, and at the age of sixteen immigrated to Canada, where he remained three years, then removing to McLean County, Ill., and, after a year’s residence there, moved to Louisa County, Iowa. At the commencement of the war he went to Burlington and enlisted in the Sixth Iowa Infantry, with which he remained until the close of the war, being mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, as captain of Company I. After returning from the war he went to Wapello, Iowa, and engaged in the grocery business for four years, and then accepted a position in the mail service on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad, but resigned in two years and opened supply stores at Unionville, Mo., and Moulton and Cincinnati, Iowa, all on the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Kansas City Railroad, then in the course of construction. After the completion of the railroad he only continued to conduct the store at Unionville, which he soon made one of the most popular stores in Northeast Missouri. In 1873 he built the main part of his present store, a handsome two-story brick structure, 24x120 feet, which is a model in all departments. Ten men are constantly employed in his store to supply the demands of his continually increasing trade. Besides superintending his business in the store Mr. Turner buys and ships large quantities of grain. In 1866 he was united in marriage to Sarah E. Stewart, a native of Ohio, and is now the father of two children: Daisy and Nellie. Mr. Turner is a member of the orders of I. O. O. F., A. O. U. W. and G. A. R., and is a strong temperance advocate. Both the maternal and paternal grandfathers of our subject were Methodist ministers, and lived and died in England. The father, William Turner, was born in the same county as James, and there married Anna Willett, afterward immigrating to Canada in 1854, and is now residing at Burlington, Iowa. Mr. Turner is the second of twelve children - four sons and eight daughters - born to this union. Two sons and four daughters reached maturity, and are still living.