BIO: John R. Turner, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
______________________________________________________________________ 

History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
______________________________________________________________________ 

                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                            CHAPTER XXXVIII.

                          BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

398  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

  JOHN R. TURNER, architect, contractor and builder, Carlisle, has been 
identified with the place since 1833, and is, perhaps, the oldest in 
this line at Carlisle.  He learned his profession with Jacob Spangler, 
with whom he served a regular apprenticeship, since which time he has 
been actively engaged in his business.  He was born at Franklin (four 
miles southwest of Shippensburg) March 6, 1815, a son of David Turner, 
who was born and reared near Mount Rock, Dickinson Township, this 
county, and of Irish parents, who settled in Cumberland County, and 
there died.  When a young man David removed to Franklin County, where 
he was married to Miss Rebecca Rudisill, who was born in what is now 
Adams County, Penn., a daughter of Baltzer and Elizabeth (Schmidt) 
Rudisill.  Mr. and Mrs. David Turner settled in West Pennsborough 
Township, Cumberland County, in 1823, and to them were born eleven 
children:  Eliza (unmarried), Mary A. (married to John Cresler, a 
farmer near Shippensburg), Rebecca (widow of James Davidson, of Peoria, 
Ill.), John R., Susan (widow of John Keller), Jane (widow of Joseph 
Heister Gibson), Sarah (widow of Samuel Corl, of Bedford County), Lydia 
C. (wife Alpheus Hagan, resident of Brandonville, Va.), Margaret (widow 
of John R. Natcher, a contractor and builder of Pittsburgh), Caroline 
(wife of George Sulluff, a contractor and builder of Allegheny City), 
and Agnes (wife of Thompson Walker, a farmer of Cumberland County).  
The parents were members of the Presbyterian Church.  John R. received 
his schooling mainly in West Pennsborough Township, and in the spring 
of 1833 went to Carlisle, where, September 6, 1838, he was married to 
Miss Catherine Halbert, a native of Calrisle, and a daughter of Joseph 
and Elizabeth (Du Boise) Halbert, former of whom came from England, and 
latter a native of Carlisle.  The grandfather of Mrs. Elizabeth Halbert 
(Abraham Du Boise) immigrated to Holland, from France, during the 
French Revolution, and subsequently to America, settling in Montgomery 
County, Penn.  To our subject and wife have been born three daughters:  
Virginia (wife of William D. Sponsler, a retired merchant of Carlisle), 
Belle, (residing at home), and Kitty (deceased, aged thirty-five, and 
unmarried).  The parents are members of the First Presbyterian Church.  
Mr. Turner is 

399  BOROUGH OF CARLISLE.

identified with St. John Lodge, F. & A. M., Carlisle, and the I. O. O. 
F., Carlisle Lodge, No. 91.  He has been the architect and builder of 
many of the buildings in Carlisle and elsewhere; was the architect and 
builder of the court house, Cumberland County, Stevens' Hall, 
Gettysburg; architect for the Farmers High School Building, near 
Bellefonte, Penn. (now the Pennsylvania Farm School), architect of the 
market house in Carlisle, and was also architect and superintendent of 
the court house of Clarion County, Penn., and now, August, 1886, is 
engaged in superintending a first dwelling for H. Gould Beetem, having 
furnished the plans and specifications.  Mr. Turner has long been one 
of the city's active and enterprising business men.