HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DAVID TURNER AND HIS WIFE, ROSE COLLIER TURNER
My Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother
David Turner and Rose Collier
By Dr. J.C. Robinson.
David Turner, Jr. was born June 3, 1819 in Pudsey, Yorkshire, England, a son of David Turner and Mary Moorhouse.
He became a master machinist and a weaver and was an expert machinist with the machinery they used in the cotton mills.
Just before his 20th birthday, 30th of April [1839], he married Rose Collier. She was born on the 16th of January 1821 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. She was a daughter of Richard Collier and Mary Butterfield. It was very probable that David had left Pudsey and possibly walked the few miles to the big manufacturing center of Leeds to seek employment and while there met his future wife and married her. They made their home in Leeds for it was there that Mary and Sarah, the two eldest children, were born. Mary, the older, came to America with her parents, but Sarah died and was buried in far away England.
Just about three years after their marriage in 1842, having decided that the future in their native land held very little in store for them, they embarked on a sailing vessel for America, the land of promise and wonderful opportunities. For six long weeks they were on the water. If the winds were favorable, they made fair headway, and if it was calm, they must just wait. The ship's water became so stale it was impossible to drink it unless they could find something to flavor it with, even some tea or coffee or anything to flavor it with.
David and Rose knew well their destination as they had an uncle, a mill owner, in Somerset County, New Jersey, in the village of Milltown. It was here they settled, and at once began to work in the cotton mills or factory.
The year following their arrival in Milltown, the 2nd of September 1843 their third child was born. They named her Martha. They remained there a number of years, in fact, the greater number of their children were born there. In all, the Turners had 13 children, besides adopting one, William Webster, which made their number 14.
One day in Milltown, David's brother, Isaac, remarked to him, "Well, David, they have killed Old Joe Smith, so that will do away with the Mormons." David did not know a thing about the Mormons but this set him to investigating. It was not long after that, that Mormon missionaries, John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, visited that part of the country and taught them the principles of the everlasting Gospel. In the year 1849 David was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was staunch and steadfast in his belief. Several years later the Turner family moved to New York. In fact, they were living in Glenham, Duchess County, New York in 1861 when they decided to join the Mormons in Florence, Nebraska, the starting point of the overland trail connecting the Western border with the Salt Lake City and the Mormons. Rose was baptized in September 1859. They arrived in Utah the 12th of September 1861 in the John R. Murdock Company.
After a few days rest in Salt Lake City, they moved on to Fillmore in Millard County where they spent the next two years. David soon had a little home, humble though it was, and the older children found employment in the various families. David received a call to go to Deseret and help build up that country. This was in 1863. There on the 18th of October 1863, their youngest child was born, a son. He was named James Edward. For five hard and tedious years they worked subduing the soil and turning the water from the river out over the thirsty land and then about 18[68] they moved to Holden. [where they made a living with shovel and plow.] Their leaving Desert was sad because they could not keep the dam in as the floods were unmanageable and they simply had to give up their farms and abandon the settlement. It was leave or starve. David and Rose lived in Holden until 1874 when he was called by Apostle Erastus Snow to go to Washington in Dixie County and work in the cotton factory there. It was then, in this mill, where he wove the material in the upholstery of the St. George Temple and also made cloth for the suits of clothes for the men who worked in the Temple. David and Rose did a great deal of work for their kindred dead in the St. George Temple.
David married Alice Robinson [Jackson] for his plural wife, who bore him a son. They lived in Washington until their death. David died the 25th of December 1887 after a short illness. He possessed a real human spirit, kind, gentle and liberal and died with an abiding faith in his church and in his God, and looking forward to a glorious reunion with loved ones gone before.
Rose died the 18th of December 1882, five years before her husband. They were both buried in the cemetery at Washington, Washington County, Utah. They left a numerous posterity to represent them on earth and were loved and respected by all who knew them.
The names of their children are as follows:
-
Mary Turner Ellett: Born the 3rd of February, 1840; Died 26th of November, 1920
- Sarah Turner: Born 27th of September, 1841;
Died [23rd Nov 1842]
- Martha Turner Lovell: Born 2nd September,
1843; Died 23rd April, 1915
- William Turner: Born 26th of May, 1845;
Died October, 1925
- Susannah Turner Robinson: Born 3rd of
February, 1847; Died 15th of April, 1938
- John Turner: Born 9th of July, 1848; Died
25th July, 1874
- William Webster: Born 29th January, 1859
(Adopted); Died 18th February, 1914
- Joseph Henry Turner: Born 9th March, 1850;
Died 17th August, 1896
- Rose Ann Turner Sampson: Born 22nd March,
1852; Died 30th March, 1916
- David Turner: Born 14th November, 1853;
Died 30th March, 1929
- Benjamin
Godfrey Turner: Born 18th August 1855; Died 21st April, 1918
- Lorenzo Turner: Born 11th May, 1861; Died
7th June 1943
- James Edward Turner: Born 18th October, 1863; Died [9th May 1956]
2 children by plural wife, Alice Robinson [Jackson]:
-
David L(?) Turner: Born 14 June, 1878; Died 11 Dec, 1925
- Sarah Turner: Born; Died
©2000 Dr. J.C. Robinson
Last Updated: Thursday, 03-Mar-2005 06:18:14 MST
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