| Notes |
- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TURLEY was born in 1822 in Montgomery County, Kentucky, and died in 1888. He is buried at New Liberty in Owen County, Kentucky. About 1847 he married Mary Ann Pearce, born in 1828 in Ohio, who died in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1908 and is buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery. In a fascinating article, "The Home of Long Ago" published in the News-Herald of Owenton, Owen County, Kentucky, 18 December 1947, many interesting quotations are included from Mary Ann (Turley) Allnutt, widow of R. W. Allnutt and the fifth child of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Ann (Pearce) Turley. Mrs. Allnutt was then in her ninetieth year and lived in New Orleans, Louisiana. She said:
"My English [?] mother was Mary Ann Pearce Turley. Her father was wed in California [Ohio] to Mary Ann Joiner and migrated when she was a child to Covington.... My mother, as a school girl, saw the Ohio river frozen over between Covington and Cincinnati and skated across to visit an aunt there....Mother had come on a visit to Gallatin county and became attracted to father when she saw his picture in oil painting. Following their wedding, they first settled near Napoleon but father wanted more land and they came twelve miles or more to the place near Sparta where stands the red-brick Gothic."
On 8 June 1847 Benjamin Franklin Turley purchased from P. P. Hanna and his wife a lot in Napoleon. He was listed as Constable on the 1850 census, living with his wife and two year old son, Amos C. Turley. In 1851 he sold his share of his father's property to his brother, Joseph Turley. In 1855 he purchased 126 acres on Sugar Creek from George T. Tilley and his wife.
A. B. Chambers and his wife sold 254 acres on Boone Road to Benjamin Franklin Turley in 1863. Benjamin Franklin and Mary Ann Turley then sold fourteen acres of the property to John 0. Hamilton,931 and fifteen acres to P. W. Hamilton. Mary Ann (Turley) Allnutt said of the move:
"After he [B. F.] bought the farm we lived some years in the long white brick home of the Turpins. Materials were high then. It cost him $8,000 to build. Horatio Turpin had come years before from the south with a host of black slaves and put up the white brick which stood in the rear of the one there now. It had a large hall in the center, rooms on both sides and rooms upstairs with dormer windows. I can almost see the row of cabins built for the servants from the yard gate to the barn - those little log cabin homes.
"Mother and the servants cooked many meals for the soldiers. They came in 'bunches' and 'droves' during the Civil War. Ordered dinner, too, and partial to ham and eggs. Once a bunch were waiting to eat, some in the big hall on the floor where mother had to pass. One of them spoke unkind words to her. She flew to the door and called the Captain: "When you have these soldiers treat me as a lady I will get you a fine dinner, but not before." The Captain came and made them get into the yard. She fed many meals to them in those days. One night they came and announced there was a rebel hid there, but after searching found none. I always got a good hold on mother's dress until the soldiers were out of sight. Things were high then: coffee $1 per pound; flour $20 per bbl; irish potatoes $5 a bushel,- and so much to do, fruit to dry and can...The English style house, was built by father B. F. Turley, who employed men from Warsaw near the close of the Civil War.
The house, which was the subject of the newspaper article became quite a landmark, and is still standing in 1978. Not only the architecture of the house made it unusual, but its location. It was adjacent to the spot where Daniel Boone crossed the Warsaw - Sparta Road on his exploration of what is now Gallatin County.
In 1865 B. F. Turley purchased from A. B. Chambers and wife thirty acres on Eagle Creek, and Lot 86 in Warsaw from William Lantz and wife93D and a tract in Warsaw from John W. Hawkins and wife.
A list of students at the Male and Female College, Warsaw, Gallatin County, Kentucky, in 1867 included children of Mary Ann and B.F. Turley - Amos, Benjamin. Jennie and Mollie - and their cousins, Emma and Mattie Turley. That same year B. F. and Mary Ann Turley sold a lot in Warsaw to J. W. Hawkins. prom 1877 to 1884 they were listed as grantor in four transactions and grantee in seven. One transaction on each list involved Alfred Swango and John C. Hamilton.
On the 1880 census Benjamin F. Turley was listed as a dry goods merchant rather than a farmer as he had been in 1870. On 10 May 1881 he was appointed Postmaster of the Sparta Station, which he evidently remained until a successor was appointed 4 June 1883. It may have been at this time that Mary and Frank, as he was called, went to live with their daughter, Mollie Allnut, and her family in Owen County.
Charles Turley, a grandson of Benjamin, in a telephone conversation in 1971 when he was in his nineties, said that his grandfather had come to St. Louis after the Civil War when it was very difficult to make a living in Kentucky. He said that Benjamin F. Turley had founded the B, F. Coal Co., which had supplied coal and water for the building of the Chain of Rocks Bridge. The St. Louis Directory listed in 1887 Benton F. Turley, feed, at 3929 Chouteau (the address Charles Turley had given) with residence at 4328 Vista. Chambers L. Turley was listed as clerk, residing at the same Vista Avenue address. The 1888 Directory has Chambers L. Turley, coal, at the Chouteau address and residence on Clark Street. Thomas J. Turley was collier; C. L. Turley resided at the Clark address. In 1889 Benjamin F. Turley, coal, resided on North Broadway; Chambers L. Turley, coal, at the Chouteau address, resided at 1420 Old Manchester. At that address was also Mary Ann, widow of B. Franklin Turley.
James Weldon and W. H. Tiller were appointed at the July term of the Gallatin County Court, 1888, to give an appraisal of the personal estate of B. F. Turley, deceased. A list was presented 2 May 1889 to the court. The home place of B. F. Turley was sold at auction 21 October 1889, the indenture being made by Mary A. Turley, widow of B. F. Turley, Amos C. Turley, Ben F. Turley, Jennie Turley, Mollie Allnut. Rube Allnut, Chambers Turley, T. Jeff. Turley and Emma Turley.
Mary Ann Turley continued to be in the St. Louis Directory. In the 1900 census she was listed in the home of Herb and Emma Culling, her daughter and son-in-law, where she remained until her death.
Children of Benjamin Franklin and Mary Ann (Pearce) Turley:
Amos Clarence Turley b. 1848
William Pearce Turley b. 1852, d. 4 July 1852
Martha Jane (Jennie) Turley b. 1853
Benjamin Franklin Turley b. 1855
Mary Ann (Mollie) Turley b. 1858
Chambers L. Turley b. 1866
Thomas Jefferson Turley b. 1869
Emma Elizabeth Turley b. 1874
Turley Family Records, page 390-392 [1]
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1822 - 1888 (66 years)
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