Welcome to the Historic Turner House!

The Turner House was awarded a Texas Historical Commission medallion and included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The older part of the building, built in about 1851 by George Gregg, is  typical of the four room “shotgun” style dwellings of the period: two square rooms on each side of a central hallway extending from the front to the back of the structure. Shotgun ranch houses got their name from the idea that you could shoot a shotgun from the front door all the way down the hall and out the back. Each room had its own fireplace, although only one fireplace remains exposed. The house initially faced North on Crockett St, but was moved to face West on South Washington St. about 1928 by  Robert and Eleanor Turner. The current front porch and kitchen addition were added to the East side of the house at that time. The house has features of the Greek Revival style, including  full-façade porch, porch gable (previously removed), front door pair, a rectangular transom, and wooden double hung sash windows. The original wood floors are made of 6” wide and 1” thick long leaf pine. The foundation beams supporting the structure were made of 12” x 12” cypress wood, each 30’ long. These beams were joined by mortise and tenon joints rather than nails or screws. A portion of one of these beams has been reclaimed and made into the hall entry table.  Another notable feature of the house found in early photographs is a central pediment on the front facade. The THC granted permission for this pediment to be reconstructed when the house was renovated in order to be consistent with the original porch. 

When walking up to the front of the house at 406 S. Washington St, on each side of the brick pathway to the front porch, there were hundreds of beautiful purple Iris on both sides of the brick walk.  On the right-hand side, as one was facing the house, was a pecan tree that produced very small pecans. On the other side of the walk was another pecan tree but with pecans that did not taste nearly as good but were the normal size. The pecan tree with the smaller and tastier pecans was one that old Major Turner had found and brought back from a hunting trip. As he rested beneath the tree he tasted one of the nuts and thought they were the best he’d ever had. He decided that he would dig it up and bring it back to Marshall to plant in his own yard. This was a huge undertaking since this was a fully grown tree. He had to hire a crew to dig up the tree and transport it back on a large horse drawn wagon and then replanted the tree. The tree successfully produced the best tasting pecans of any tree around. For many years my grandmother and great grandmother would send these pecans to us every Christmas as a gift.

Although the house was originally built in 1851, it came into our family’s possession in 1866. Major Turner, my great, great grandfather, was an enthusiastic poker player. He was on his way to church on a Sunday morning and as he walked past the old Adkins Hotel, some of his friends called out to him to come play a hand of poker. The house was won in that poker game. Sadly, none of us ever heard what his winning hand consisted of or whether James Turner made it to church that day. 

Originally the old house faced Crockett St. The  family’s property included the land behind the house all the way to Bolivar Street. Old Sanborn maps show that the entire house was picked up and “turned” 45 degrees to face South Washington Street around 1832 by Robert and Eleanor Turner.

Major Turner was a well known lawyer in Marshall.  That must have been a high risk profession during those years, because he was shot twice during his career. The first time he was shot in the chest. He must have been a very lucky gambler, because he had been gambling before court and had won heavily. He had a large wad of “IOU’s” in his vest pocket since he apparently wiped out his fellow poker players. During the trial the defendant pulled out a gun and shot Major Turner in the chest! Firearms and bullets being what they were, the wad of IOU’s stopped the bullet and Major Turner walked away with nothing more than bruises. He never called in those IOU’s, saying that the debt was paid in full since they saved his life.  

He was less fortunate on the second occasion. The shooter was aiming at someone else, but hit Major Turner in the leg.  The wound festered and did not heal. Eventually he had to have the leg amputated at the hip.  Major Turner was always in great pain after that and took large amounts of laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) for the rest of his life despite his wife, Eleanor’s, attempts to rid him of the addiction. He never completely recovered and spent most of his remaining years in what is now the Oz room. He stayed in that room with his green pet parrot (which had been a gift to one of the girls from a beau whom the girl, perhaps a niece, had met while on a trip to Mexico.) The parrot chewed all the wooden knobs off the cabinets in the room.

The Turner family always had dogs.  These dogs were hunting dogs, and it was made very clear to me that they were always Setters or Pointers. “Gentlemen would have only Setters or Pointers.”

The dogs had been trained to bring a stick of firewood to the back door in order to be let into the house. One day the family was traveling to a neighboring town when a cold front came blasting into East Texas. The icey winter winds coated the carriage wheels and made travel treacherous, delaying the family’s return home. When they finally arrived back at the house, they found the back door totally obscured with sticks that the dogs had brought, convinced they just needed one more stick to get entry into the warm house

One of the things I remember most about the old house was sitting in front of the little natural gas heaters that were located throughout the house.  My sister Alison and I would sit in front of these gas heaters in the hallway. The heaters were lit with old fashioned kitchen matches that ignited with a burst of sulfur smell. We would sit gazing at the glowing ceramic tiles at the back of the stove as they heated to a blue hot flame. 

We would sit directly in front of the flames and draw a line between us, sometimes with chalk or sometimes just an imaginary line.  We would swear an oath that neither of us would cross over to the other sibling’s side and would therefore take only our fair share of the heat from the gas stove, however we would spend the rest of the morning bickering with each other over who was crowding onto the other person’s side of the line that we had agreed upon.

Predating the Turner House, this is the story of Annie, an enslaved girl who was regularly told to rock the baby (possibly Philitus Kyes?) in the rocking chair that always sat on the front porch.  Annie had been admonished on many occasions that she should always rock the baby gently, not too fast or too hard because it was dangerous. 

One November night in 1833 the skies were lit with countless meteors.  Agnes Clarke, the Victorian Astronomy Writer, described it this way; 

“The sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs”

Everyone in town poured out into their front lawns to see this incredible sight … except for Annie. 

Finally free of the baby, Annie remained on the porch, rocking with abandon. Head back and heels extended toward the stars, Annie broke free and pushed that rocker to its limits. Rock on Annie!

*In 1933, "The night the stars fell." "On the night of November 12-13, 1833, a tempest of falling stars broke over the Earth... The sky was scored in every direction with shining tracks and illuminated with majestic fireballs. At Boston, the frequency of meteors was estimated to be about half that of flakes of snow in an average snowstorm. Their numbers... were quite beyond counting; but as it waned, a reckoning was attempted, from which it was computed, on the basis of that much-diminished rate, that 240,000 must have been visible during the nine hours they continued to fall." - Agnes Clarke’s, Victorian Astronomy Writer.