TURRENTINE FAMILY

Look back to learn, Look around for common ties , Look ahead to prepare the future

Arrival in America The Kouli Kan docked in Newcastle-on-the-Delaware and on

November 14, 1745 was "entered in" at the Custom House in Philadelphia. On November 26, 1745 "Alexander Torrentine," a servant from Ireland, who had arrived on the Kouli Kan, was taken before the Mayor of Philadelphia, James Hamiliton, by James Templeton, who assigned "Torrentine's" indenture to Neal McClaskey of Chester County, Pennsylvania, for the consideration of eighteen English pounds and customary dues. Three days later on November 29, "Samuel Torrentine," a servant from Ireland, who also arrived on the Kouli Kan, was also taken by James Templeton before the Mayor and his indenture was assigned to John Dicky, also of Chester County, for the same eighteen English pounds and customary dues .

With the arrival of Samuel and Alexander Turrentine on the

privateering brigantine Kouli Kan, another family was established in America.

Freeman

• Alexander is listed as a "freeman" on the 1753 and 1754 Tax Lists of West Nottingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

• Sometime during the late summer or fall of 1754, Samuel and Alexander Turrentine planted a "wheat patch" in what is now Menno Township, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. This "wheat patch" was located on Kishocquillas Creek, a tributary of the Juniata River, across the Allegheny Mountains.

Kishacoquillas Creek has been built up and none of it looks as it did in 1754.

But some places still have a wild flavor.

They built a cabin, but left due to the dangers of raids when the French and Indian War broke out.

According to tradition, they had buried two mattocks, two axes, and a jug of whiskey in the northwest corner of the cabin floor before leaving. McDowell came to Kishcoquillas Valley with the return of the settlers about 1761. He found the mattocks, axes and whiskey, although the cabin had been burned.

Samuel and Alexander along with many others moved south away from the danger, settling in Orange County, North Carolina.

On January 29, 1761, Samuel "Torrenton" was granted 394 acres of land at the "Fork of Little River".

Alexander "Torintin" was granted 275 acres of land, "Both sides of Buffalo Creek," on January 9, 1761 and he was also granted 369 acres of land "beginning at a Black Jack" on February 9, 1761.

Two years later, on March 2, 1763, they were able to sell their property in Pennsylvania. Each received two pounds, twelve shillings, and six pence for his property. Because of the change in currency, it is difficult to determine how much money that would be today.

Cemetery is located on the old Turrentine farm.

Field stone markers for the immigrant Samuel and Alexander as they appeared in 1950s.

Finding the Cemetery

A group lead by Durwood Turrentine Stokes drove to the old farm and found Clyde Turrentine, a descendant of former slaves who at that time owned the old home place. She went with them down the road a mile or so to the cemetery and explained that from times of slavery, the colored people had buried their dead on one side and the white on the other. Her father bought the place after the last Turrentine living there died. She was not aware that there were any Turrentines other than her people anywhere.

Mattie Clyde Turrentine

• Durwood’s wrote: “When we arrived we found a badly overgrown place in a grove… Younger members of the party began to pull back the branches and read. ..Samuel Turrentine, 1801, age 86 years, And now I was puzzled for this man was too old to be a son of the first Samuel. While I was pondering this, Billy called out, “Here is one marked Alexander Turrentine, died 1784 and Daddy, beside it is one marked Deborah Turrentine died 1799. With a shock that penetrated my entire system with the force of electricity, I realized that I knew who these were and that I was standing beside the graves of the original immigrants.

The inventory of Alexander’s estate in 1784. An Inventory of the perishable property of Alexander Torrentine Dec'd: 4 negroes, 10 horses, 17 head of Cattle, 8 head of Sheep, head of Hoggs, 4 beds and furniture, tables, 16 Chairs, 1 Chest, 8 pewter dishes, 17 pewter plates, 6 basons, 3 potts, 3 ploughs and Tacklings, 4 Axes, 1 Tea Kittle, 1 Set of knives and forks, 6 Pewter Spoons, Bibles, 1 English Dictionary, 1 Pepper box, 1 Candle Stick, and Snuffers, 1 Nutmeg Grater, 1 Razer and Strop, 1 Log chain, 1 Set of boxes for a Wagon, 3 bridles, bottles, 1 Tea Pot, 1 Smoothing Iron, 1 P. of Tailers Sheers, 1 p. of Wool Sheers, 3 Hoes, 1 Spade, 1 Coopers Howel, 1 p. of Stilliards, 1 Pick fork, 1 Confession of Faith.

What is interesting are the books in the inventory: more than one Bible, an English dictionary, and a Confession of Faith which connects the family to the Presbyterian faith, although in later generations many descendants came become Methodist ministers. So many I have been told, that the reunion were moved from even years to odd years to avoid conflicts with the every other year meeting of the Methodist ministers.

Education and faith

Turrentines Move West and South

Around 1795, about 50 years after the arrival and Samuel and Alexander, the family began to split and move again.

James, the first-born son of Samuel's second wife, left Orange County with his young family and settled near Milledgeville, Georgia.

Between 1810 and 1820, Samuel’s children, John, Jane, and possibly Martha, and their families moved to Morgan County, Alabama.

Around 1807, Alexander's children and their families, with the exception of Daniel and Mary who had died, went to the Duck River, in what is now Bedford County, Tennessee. James led the caravan.

Samuel’s daughter Sarah and her husband Alexander Stewart also moved to Tennessee.

Around 1815, Samuel came, completing the family migration.

By 1830, of the known living children of Samuel and Alexander, only Samuel, Absalom, and Daniel were left in Orange County.

Turrentine Places

Turrentine Academy – 1890,

Halls Mills Pond Road,

Bedford County, Tennessee

Turrentine Hall,

Marionville Collegiate Institute,

Lawrence County, Missouri

More Turrentine Places

Turrentine Hall Greensboro College, North Carolina1910 -1969

Served as residence of the College President Samuel Bryant Turrentine from 1913-1935

I need to get a pictures of :• Turrentine Hall at Henderson

University, Arkadelphia, Arkansasand• Turrentine Baptist Church,

Mocksville, North Carolina

Here is an interior picture of the William Newton and Elizabeth Horton Turrentine Heart Education Center, in Greenville, South Carolina

Turrentine Surname Census Figures

1850 – Is the first census with last and first names, slaves were on a special schedule without names Turrentine – 156 on free schedule - 12 Turrentine households had a total of 124 slaves Total – 280 Turntine – 5

1860 – Turrentine – 150 on free schedule - 17 Turrentine households had a total of 136 slaves Total – 286 Turntine - 29

1870 – After the Civil War - Turrentine – 307 (203 white, 91 black, 13 mulatto) Turntine - 55 (49 white and 6 black)

1930 – the last year where the census is open - 670 Turrentine - 243 Turntine Total - 913

Most Turrentine Descendants have a surname other than Turrentine

• The Newsletter data base has over 280 surnames with addresses in 35 States.

• Only 88 households, 20%, of the paper mailing list still has the surname Turrentine.

• Those 280 households are just a fraction of our cousins across the country. If the ratio between persons with the surname Turrentine/Turntine in the 1930 census to total cousins is the same as our mail list, we would expect to have over 4,000 households containing over 10.000cousins through the Turrentine lines alone living today.

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As I research more and more, I find connections between lines living in different parts of the United States and Canada. I recently found a connection between my husband’s line and the Turrentine line, although he is not a Turrentine descendant.

There are some who contend that if you have even one ancestor who was living in the American colonies at the time of the War for Independence, you could probably find a link by blood, marriage, or business transaction to anyone else who also had an ancestor living in that time period.

Our earliest Turrentine ancestors arrived in bondage, some became freemen in a matter of years, some did not see freedom in their lifetimes. For many generations they toiled to make the futures of their descendants brighter than their own. Our bondage now is of our own making.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, did a genealogical and family history study of successful blacks. He found a common thread, a thread that I have seen in most Turrentine descendants: a belief in God, education and hard work.

Turrentine Reunions

In 1941, A. W. McAlester wrote:

“One of the weaknesses of our present-day civilization is that it has broken loose from its roots of the past. There are some things which must be left behind with the past. There are other things of the past in which alone the present can find security, and the future find fulfillment.

Institutions like the Turrentine family reunion tend to deepen and strengthen the roots of the past and to make firm a precious anchorage to which we need to hold fast.”

1st – 1941 – Hillsboro, Orange County, NC

2nd – 1950 – Lockesburg, Sevier County, Arkansas

News article said over 300 people from 10 states attended, first integrated.

3rd-1952 Shelbyville, Tennessee

• Turrentines came to this area in 1807 and remained, some still on the same land.

Some of the Samuel Turrentine descendants

4th - 1955 – Marionville, Missouri

5th – 1957 -Gadsden, Alabama

• Daniel Clower Turrentine was one of the first white settlers in this area.

• These are his grandchildren who attended the reunion.

6th – 1959 - Hillsboro,North Carolina

Ollie Turrentine Williams – age 88 and Raymond Hazen - age 5

11th -1969 – Nashville, Tennesee

12th – 1973 – Chapel Hills, NC

1981 – Birmingham, Alabama

1983 - St. Louis, Missouri

1985 – Chapel Hill, NC

1989 – Tulsa, Oklahoma

1993 - Texarkana

1995 Dallas, Texas

The group was so large they divided into Samuel and Alexander descendants for the pictures.

2003 – Salt Lake City, Utah

2006 - Nashville, Tennessee

2010 - ?