MAJOR SQUIRE TURNER From a Portrait " - The Filson Historical ...

1951] Sqldre Turner 47study law. Squire's son, Thomas, served one term in Congress.William went to Washington, Indiana, where he became prominentat the bar of his adopted state. Both studied law undertheir father,mSquire Turner also had two daughters, Mary Ann and Catherine.Mary married Thomas J. Hood, a lawyer of Clark Countyand a member of the constitutional convention of 1849. Catherinemarried Matthew J. Haden of Woodford County, later adistiller and wholesaler of Louisville. The mother of these finedaughters and sons was Elizabeth Stone, daughter of Josiah Stone,a pioneer of Madison County who was descended from two governorsof Maryland, William Stone and John Hoskins Stone. Fiewas also a nephew of Thomas Stone, signer of the Declarationof Independence. z4Squire Turner died on July 7, 1871, in his seventy-ninth year.His passing was noted in the press of the state as being that of nocommon man. The Madison bar adopted appropriate resolutionsin his memory. Some sentences deserve mention: "During thislong period at the bar, he never missed a court in his own countyand but one in Garrard and Estill. The practice of the law washis absorbing passion and happiness, and in it he made, to thelast degree, the use of his abilities. His vigilance and alertness,joined with his knowledge of the law, . . . and his skill as a practitioner,rendered him always a formidable opponent, and wereof service to the members of the bar at which he practiced....His labors as a lawyer have been of signal service to the professionin the state, as his great perseverance and laborious research havecaused to be gathered up and incorporated in the decisions of ourcourts principles heretofore lying latent upon the surface of thecommon law, or seemingly hidden in the depths of equity jurisprudence.''z•Such expressions of appreciation were well deserved, andmarked the passing of a truly gifted, worthy, and prominentcitizen of Madison County and Kentucky.FOOTNOTES1 See J. T. Dorris, "William Chenault: Citizen, Teacher, and Historian,"The Filson Club History Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2 (April, 1945).e For this account of Turner's early life see Eminent American Lawyers(1852), edited by John Livingston of the New York Bar, pp. 634-40. Manuscriptsprepared by descendants of Squire Turner, one an able great-grandsonof Turner, were also used. These manuscripts will be referred to hereafter asthe Turner Papers. Sometime they probably will be deposited in the CollegeLibrary in Richmond. The National Cyclopaedia o[ American Biography, Vol.XIX, pp. 110-11, also gives a sketch of Turner's life.