"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon." Chapman Publishing Company, 1903. p. 820. WILLIAM McDONALD TURNER At the age of eighteen, in 1853, William McDonald Turner crossed the plains with his parents and brothers and sisters, leaving behind the prosperous little farm in Johnson county, Mo., upon which he was born November 3, 1835, and where he had developed into a strong and self-reliant youth. His father, Jonas, was born in Tennessee, as was also his mother, Luhettie (Gilliam) Turner, although they were married in Missouri, shortly afterward settling on the farm in Johnson county. The long and wearying trip across the plains was accomplished without any particular incident, wagons, oxen and the various members of the party bearing up well under the necessarily severe strain upon their endurance. Setting out May 3, 1853, they spent the first winter in the Washoo valley, Nev., and the next spring went on to California, locating in Mariposa county for a couple of years. They then went to Sonoma county, where the father bought land, improved it, and lived thereon until the death of both himself and wife. Hard work on the home farm interfered somewhat with the education which William Turner desired, and he really saw little of the public schools of either Missouri or California. What education he has received has been almost entirely of recent acquisition, and has resulted in his becoming a well-informed and liberal-minded man. At the age of twenty he started out to work among the farmers of Sonoma county, Cal., receiving as compensation four dollars a week and board. He was frugal and had few wants, and by 1861 had saved quite a little money, sufficient at any rate to bring him to Polk county, Ore. Here he worked on farms for a few weeks, and not being satisfied with the prospects he went to eastern Oregon and engaged in the laborious work of packing from The Dalles to the Idaho mines. A frontier existence was both congenial and profitable, and for nearly six years he continued freighting, and otherwise interested himself in the occupations of the crude and as yet undeveloped country. In 1867 Mr. Turner returned to Polk county, and after living on rented farms in the Willamette valley for several years bought his present farm of one hundred and forty-five acres, advantageously located a few miles from Airlie. Some of the finest horses in this country have been bred upon the well-equipped Turner farm, and have brought their owner substantial returns for his care. Since 1873 Mr. Turner has had the companionship and ready sympathy of a very helpful and devoted wife, who was formerly Mary J. Waters, born in Iowa, October 20, 1847. Edward Waters, the father of Mrs. Turner, crossed the plains with his family in 1853, locating on a farm in Polk county, near Pedee. Of the eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Turner, Dorsa N., John C., William Troy, Andy J., and Emmett live in or near Airlie ; Benjamin F., the oldest son, resides near Pedee and Emmett and Luhettie, the youngest children, are living on the home farm. The Turner home is a hospitable and pleasant one, and all of the members are popular and well liked in their respective neighborhoods. Mr. Turner subscribes to the principles of the Democratic party, and has held various official positions in his adopted county, including that of school director and road supervisor. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of Lewisville, of which both himself and wife are trustees. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in March 2007 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.