Turnertown

W. T. Turner, born in 1854, settled east of Ridgely and north off the Gratio-Ridgely Road about 2 miles. Mr. Turner built a sawmill there in the late 1800’s, It had closed by the 1920’s. The new (1990) home of Mr. And Mrs. Steve Parks would be on the south edge of Turnertown.

Elvin Prince, retired merchant living in Ridgely, remembersed Mr. Turner as being an “old” man who had a small store at the back of his home. Elvin was born in 1911 and was about 5 years old when his family moved to Turnertown where he grew up.

As there was no school there, the children in the community attended school at Madie. They could go a direct route, 3 miles when the roads were graded, but it was 5 miles around a better road they had to travel in bad weather.

Elvin remembered their neighbors were Johnson’s, Deans, The Rivers Walker family, Sam Ed Riley, Vannie Lovell family and Elmer Auston family.

There was another store in Turnertown. The last store there was owned by Eric Ferrell.

“The Turnertown Locals” was formerly a regular feature in the Lake Co. Banner. One reporter was Patsy Jonas Denison.

A Church of God was build in Turnertown on land donated by Mr. Robert Mauldin in 1940. The building later burned.

Citizens mentioned in one issue of the Turnertown News were Mr. And Mrs. Bobby DAVIS, Mr. And Mrs. Jack LONG, Mr. And Mrs. Bonny DAVIS and their son PFC Malcom DAVIS, Josephine CONNELL, Mr. And Mrs. Ldis BEARDEN, Ida Sue CLARK, Mr. And Mrs. Robert DAVIS, Mrs. Bennie CARNELL and Beverly JONES. Hays and Jewell KENDALL lived in the stone house on the Pastsy CLIFTON House Farm in the late 1940/50’s. This house is now the only Turnertown landmark from a once thickly settled village.