Henry Gray Turner (March 20, 1839 – June 9, 1904) was an American politician, teacher, jurist and soldier. The Henry Gray Turner House in

Quitman, Georgia Quitman is a city in and the county seat of Brooks County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,850 at the 2010 census. The Quitman Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Quitman was a home of James P ...

is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Biography

Turner was born near

Henderson Henderson may refer to: People *Henderson (surname), description of the surname, and a list of people with the surname *Clan Henderson, a Scottish clan Places Argentina *Henderson, Buenos Aires Australia *Henderson, Western Australia Canada * H ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. He attended the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

(UVA) in

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

in 1857 before moving to Brooks County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, in 1859 to teach school. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Turner enlisted as a private in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

and eventually rose to the rank of captain. At the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

in July 1863 he was struck in the left shoulder by a rifle ball and taken prisoner. After the war, he studied law, gained admittance to the state bar in 1865 and began practicing law in

. In 1874, Turner was elected to the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...

in the State Assembly and served in that capacity until 1876. He also served as a delegate to the 1876

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 1852 ...

. After two more terms in 1878 and 1879 in the state house, Turner was elected to the 47th United States Congress as a Democratic

Representative Representative may refer to: Politics * Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people * House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities * Legislator, som ...

. He was re-elected to Congress for seven additional terms until deciding not to run in 1896. After his political service, Turner returned to his law practice in Quitman. In 1903, he was appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Turner died the next year in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

and was buried in West End Cemetery in Quitman.

Turner County, Georgia Turner County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9006. The county seat is Ashburn. The county was created on August 18, 1905, and named for Henry Gray Turner ...

is named in his honor.

Fiction

Turner is the great-grandfather of a fictional character, Henry Gray Turner II, in a book by author Rob Morton, ''God, Forgive These Bastards''. The book places Turner's great-grandson in the early twenty-first century and reads like his memoir. "In the late 1970s," the book jacket reads, "Henry Turner went from being a local hero and star pitcher of the

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Wildcats to an abusive, alcoholic drifter. After spending his later years in homeless encampments and psych wards, Turner turned his demons to his advantage and became a kind, beloved street story-teller, a friend of the down-and-out, and a public transit angel."

References

Sources

Retrieved on 2009-04-16 1839 births 1904 deaths Confederate States Army officers Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers Democratic Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia (U.S. state) University of Virginia alumni Burials in Georgia (U.S. state) People from Quitman, Georgia Turner County, Georgia Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state) People from Henderson, North Carolina 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American judges {{AmericanCivilWar-bio-stub