Josiah Turner, Jr. (December 27, 1821 – October 26, 1901) was an American lawyer, politician and newspaper editor from

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 ...

. Turner, one-time president of the North Carolina Railroad Company, was elected to represent

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

in the

North Carolina House of Representatives The North Carolina House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the North Carolina General Assembly. The House is a 120-member body led by a Speaker of the House, who holds powers similar to those of the President pro-tem in the North Ca ...

(1852, 1854 and 1879–1880) and in the North Carolina Senate (1858, 1860 and 1868). Turner was a Whig before the collapse of that party in the late 1850s and was opposed to

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

in the run-up to 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 ...

. After the war began, however, he served 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 ...

, ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the

Confederate House of Representatives The Confederate States Congress was both the provisional and permanent legislative assembly of the Confederate States of America that existed from 1861 to 1865. Its actions were for the most part concerned with measures to establish a new nat ...

in 1861 (losing to

Archibald H. Arrington Archibald Hunter Arrington (November 13, 1809 – July 20, 1872) was a slave owner, U.S. Representative from North Carolina from 1841 to 1845 and a member of the Confederate Congress during the American Civil War. Biography Born near Nash ...

), and was elected to that body in 1863, serving in the

Second Confederate Congress The 2nd Confederate States Congress, consisting of the Confederate States Senate and the Confederate States House of Representatives, met from May 2, 1864, to March 18, 1865, during the last year of Jefferson Davis's presidency, at the Virginia S ...

. There, he opposed the policies of President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

. Turner was elected to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in 1865 as a "Conservative" but was not seated. Elected again to the state legislature after the war, he opposed Republican Gov.

William W. Holden William Woods Holden (November 24, 1818 – March 1, 1892) was an American politician who served as the 38th and 40th governor of North Carolina. He was appointed by President Andrew Johnson in 1865 for a brief term and then elected in 1868. He ...

, who had Turner arrested in Hillsborough for allegedly assisting the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. Turner also used his newspaper, the Raleigh ''Sentinel'', to attack Holden and his party. "Turner's crusade is considered to have been largely responsible for the recapture of the state legislature by the Democrats (then called Conservatives) and for the overthrow of Governor William W. Holden in 1870 and his impeachment in 1871," wrote William S. Powell. But, said Powell, Turner was "no financial wizard" and the paper ended up in the hands of the publishers of the ''Raleigh Observer''. Eventually, they folded the paper into ''

The News & Observer ''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...

''. Turner was elected to the legislature in August 1878 and at the same time commenced another campaign for Congress, this time as an Independent Democrat with the support of some Republicans. But other Republicans could not stomach Turner due to his past reputation as, in the words of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', "the most violent opponent the Republicans ever had in this state." The resulting split in the opposition seemed to ensure a November victory for Democrat

Joseph J. Davis Joseph Jonathan Davis (April 13, 1828 – August 7, 1892) was an American lawyer and judge who represented his native North Carolina's 4th congressional district from 1875 to 1881. Biography Born near the small North Carolina town of Louisburg, ...

. Turner's wife, Sophia Devereux Turner, suffered from addiction to morphine. Turner had her committed in the North Carolina Hospital for the Insane in Raleigh in early 1878, in the hopes that the doctors there could cure her addiction. Her health began to fail in 1880. She was released from the asylum on September 13, 1880, and died at home soon after. In 1880, "Turner's behavior

s a state legislator S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History ...

became 'very erratic,' according to an account in
A Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present
', published in 1906. 'He manifested a special antipathy to the

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

, Hon. John M. Moring, whom he denominated as a 'gander head,' and his conduct was so obstreperous that at length the body, worn out by his unruly and unseemly proceedings, was driven to expel him as a member,' reads the account." No other member of the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, State government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

was so removed from office again until

Thomas E. Wright Thomas Edward Wright (born August 7, 1955) was a Democratic member of the North Carolina House of Representatives who represented the state's eighteenth district, including constituents in New Hanover and Pender counties, from 1992 to 2008. A ...

was expelled in 2008.newsobserver.com , House votes to expel Rep. Thomas Wright
Turner's last major campaign was another run for Congress in 1884 as a Republican. He was defeated by

William Ruffin Cox William Ruffin Cox (March 11, 1831/1832December 26, 1919) was an American soldier and politician from the state of North Carolina. He was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, a three-term member of the United Stat ...

References

External links

Inventory of the ''Josiah Turner Papers, 1805-1923'' held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnder the Dome
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Josiah 1821 births 1901 deaths Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from North Carolina 19th-century American legislators Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives North Carolina state senators North Carolina lawyers Expelled members of the North Carolina General Assembly