Person:Harvey Turner (1)

1887, Aug 8 - His birth date is from the bible of father, ZNP Turner, reproduced in "The Turner Family" by Jesse Cawthon Turner, Crestview, Florida, 1988, p58; Uncle Jess also told of his birth place. My father used the spelling of his middle name as Emland on his Social Security card and on his Army registration card for WW I. The spelling "Emlin" was taken from the old family bible (see Xerox copy) in which his father wrote the names and dates of birth of all his children. He might have been named for his father's cousin, Samuel Emlen Meigs (p42 "Record of Desc. of Vincent Meigs", 1935, Return Jonathan Meigs 9th, Westfield, NJ).

I have a memory of my Uncle Jess telling me that as a young man my father had an accident in which his head was run over by a wagon wheel and he had a hearing problem from that time on. He never wore a hearing aid but would cup his hand behind that one ear.

Bef 1910 - He attended a small college near his home in the panhandle of Florida. My Uncle Jesse told this to me, even naming it and the location, but I have forgotten it. I need to check further to see where he went.

1910, Sep 25 - marriage, license, Geneva, Alabama.

1910 to 1922 - He worked in DeFuniak Springs for someone, as bookkeeper or accountant, I think, and this is where my sister and brother were born.

1919 - WW I, he was classified 4-A, probably because of his hearing, and he tried three times more in July to be accepted but was turned down, class IV-A, I -X and IV-A. I guess someone tried to pass him the 3rd time. In August 1919 he received a certificate of discharge by the appeal board. I have the old postal notices of this along with the registration notice..

1913 - 1929 - He worked for The Foley Lumber Co., Eastport, Duval Co., Florida, on the St. Johns River, managing the Commissary/Company Store. The Lumber Company was comprised of the saw mill, houses for workers and management, the "company store", a theater for plays, performances and old black and white movies with no sound, accompanied by someone playing piano music as background sound for the film. The company imported mahogany timbers from South America to process. They had a large dock and Gantry on the St. Johns River for unloading and loading timber. I don't know if the company also harvested pine timber in the immediate area or not; I expect they did. When lumber in the area played out, the whole business and town moved, "lock, stock and barrel", to a place near Perry, Florida where there was no big river for imports and it was in a pine growing area..; it became Foley, FL. My mother didn't want to live in another saw mill town and preferred to move to Jacksonville and he went along with her wishes. I can't help but wonder how our lives might have turned out if we had gone to Foley, FL. I wouldn't have the same life I have today.

I was born in 1925 and have memories of going to the river area by the Gantry and Dock in the evenings with several families to boil crabs, shrimp and cook fish that had been caught; it was always a festive gathering.

by 1930 - he owned and operated a business in Jacksonville, Florida, like a "Circle K" convenience store, known then as a "sundry" store, with tobacco, candy, ice cream, magazines & news papers. His business was hit badly by the depression just as he was trying to get started and things went down hill from there. He tried very hard to keep things going for his family, but the business failed in about 1939 when I was 14 years old.

1941, May 25 - death cert.#10324, Duval Co., Florida. Buried Edgewood Cem., Jacksonville, Florida. He drowned in St. Johns River, Jacksonville, Florida, May 25 1941; his body was found 27 May 1941. He was on the river with my mother and another couple in a new "unsinkable" boat when a storm came up, the water was choppy and the boat was overturned. There were only two life preservers in the boat and they were given to the two women. My mother held him as long as she could but he just slipped from her arms. Both men drowned within a few yards of the shore.