William Turner

WILLIAM TURNER was born in New Jersey in September of 1847, the son of Jesse Richards Turner and his wife, the former Roxanna Anderson. He was a member of the Turner family for whom Turnersville in Washington Township, Gloucester County is named. The family was living in Washington Township at the time of the 1860 Census, in the area served by the Chews Landing post office.

The Turner family had moved to Camden’s Middle Ward by the time the Census was taken in 1870. The family consisted of Jesse and Roxanna Turner, William Turner, and younger siblings Sophia, Jesse Jr., Alfred, Michael, David, and Hannah Turner. Another daughter, named Roxanna for her mother, had died during the 1860s. Older sister Susannah had married Charles A. Frost and had gone to start a family.

The 1880 Census shows the Turner family on Hamilton Street in South Camden. Hamilton Street was renamed Berkley Street in 1882. Jesse Turner had a milk business, while William Turner was working as a gas tube maker. William Turner worked as a blacksmith and lived at 337 Berkley Street through 1888.

William Turner was appointed to the Department to serve as an extra man with Engine Company 2, taking the place of Howard H. Currie. William Turner was replaced in turn in 1884 by Charles Todd. William Turner’s brothers-in-law, Henry Frost and George Frost, had previously served as members of the Fire Department.

The 1890 City Directory shows William Turner had moved to 770 Division Street, where he stayed through 1896. City Directories for 1897 and 1898 show him at 512 Pine Street, and the 1899 City Directory gives his address as 809 South 5th Street. When the Census was taken in 1900 William Turner was living at 204 South 5th Street. He appears in the 1906 Directory at 349 Pine Street.

When the census was taken in 1910, William Turner was living at 420 Haddon Avenue with his widowed sister Susannah and her children Harry, Charles, and Anna. He was still living with them as late as 1928. He had long since stopped working as a blacksmith, instead working as a janitor at the Frost family’s business, Frost Brothers opticians, at 540 Federal Street.

William Turner appeared in the Camden City Directory in 1929. He does not appear in the April 1930 Census and it would appear that he had passed away by that time. His sister and her sons were still living at 420 Haddon Avenue at the time of the Census enumeration. William Turner passed away at home on April 16, 1931.

As stated above, William Turner’s brother-in-laws, Henry Frost and George Frost, had served as members of the Camden Fire Department in the early 1870s. George Frost’s son Frank Frost served as a member of the Camden Police Department in the 1910s. George Frost’s other son, Lewis Frost, was well known in Camden at the turn of the century as a member of the Century Wheelmen athletic club. A nephew, George W. Frost, the son of brother-in-law Frederick Frost, had a long career with the Camden Police Department, retiring as Chief of Police in the late 1940s. Brother-in-law Charles A. Frost, married to William Turner’s sister Susannah, was a successful businessman and a co-founder of what was generally known as Jenning’s Sixth Regiment Band.