GILBERT TURNBULL, 1838

by William Urban

    According to the census of 1840 for Warren County he was between 40 and 50, there were two women in the family 40-50, two sons ages 10-15, and a daughter 10-15. The census of 1850 for Henderson County clarifies the situation, indicating he was born in Tennessee about 1800, and was a farmer worth $3000; his wife, Ann Lowry Turnbull, had been born in Kentucky in 1799; Joseph (1828) and Elizabeth (1830) had been born in Ohio, and two other children, Adaline Bunker (1835) and James Chapin (1846) were living with them.

    He may have been the Gilbert Turnbull living in Xenia, Ohio, in 1830. The Old Settlers Association reports that "Annie L" Turnbull arrived in Henderson County August 29, 1832.

    He is listed in the jury pool of March 8, 1833, and on March 7, 1834.

    He was one of the two trustees of the first school district, established March 16, 1834. There were fifty children between the ages of five and twenty-one, half of whom were eligible for tuition. The probable expenses of the tuition vouchers was $45. The first school was a log house with a dirt floor that also served as the courthouse and a church. The next school was built on Broadway, in 1835, where the Methodist Church was later located.

    He was mayor in 1838. When six trustees were elected to assist him in city government, he exercised his authority as a justice of the peace to swear them in.

    He placed a notice in the Monmouth Atlas of March 29, 1850: "G. Turnbull, [guardian] of William Turnbull Black, a minor over 14 years of age notified John Black, Harvey Black, Henry Black of his intent to resign guardianship."

    He died October 17, 1851, at his residence in Henderson County, aged fifty-three (Atlas, October 17, 1851).

    On March 15, 1854, his daughter Elizabeth married Adam Hamill in Henderson County (Atlas, March 24, 1854). In 1860 his wife was living with Elizabeth (age 39?) and Adam Hamill in Henderson. Ten years later she is boarding with James and Mary (?) Shields.

    His son Joseph apparently moved to Iowa City by 1860 with his wife Rebecca (1830 in Ohio) and their infant son, Gilbert. He had married Rebecca C. Black in Warren County November 26, 1851.