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George Turner lived from 1814-1896. He was born in Roxburghshire, Scotland and died in Spring Grove.
George was the oldest of six children born to James Turner 1788-1860 and Janet Oliver 1789-1861. James owned a thriving weaving factory in Edinburgh, Scotland. A sign on the factory read, “Turner & Son, Weavers for the King,” the son being George.
It was a high-stress job because George suffered nervous exhaustion at about age 45. The doctors called it “brain-fog” and said his only hope was to get out on a farm and live in the open. So, his father sold the factory, bought land (that is now part of the Chain O Lakes State Park and the Turner Lake Fen), and moved the whole family there just before the Civil War. George brought two trunks full of books from Scotland.
George thrived in health and quickly, at age 46, married 28-year old Bridget Dorsey (1832-1903), who hailed from Ireland and had been living with her sister Mary, who was married to John Cary. George and Bridget had six daughters (with a set of twins) and lastly, one son, from 1861-1868. (Maggie, one twin, was only 2 ½ lbs at birth and when only three days old, was given to her father’s sister, Janet Turner, to raise. Janet was a midwife and nurtured Maggie, who lived to age 84).
When George retired, he moved to Spring Grove, but the farm was kept in the family. After he died in 1896 at 83, two daughters, Lizzie and Mollie, who never married, sold the farm and bought a house on Green Street in McHenry. They worked as dressmakers, supporting themselves and their mother. They moved all of George’s books and papers to McHenry.
When Bridget died she wanted to be buried in the Irish Catholic Cemetery at St. Patrick’s in McHenry. Mollie died just three years later and was buried with her mother. Three years after that, Lizzie, who was now 45, the same age as when her father married, got married herself! She moved to Elgin with her new husband and took all the books and papers with her. Although promised to her niece, she died ten years later and her husband remarried and the books and papers were lost.
George was buried in Cole Cemetery where his name, alone, is engraved on a large monument. Thankfully, he is not alone, as his brother, Thomas O., a Civil War veteran, is buried close by along with his sisters, Sarah Turner Oxtoby, Janet Turner Heaney, and Isabelle Turner Neish, and also his parents James and Janet.
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