John W. Turner
A successful and well-to-do horticulturist of Sonoma county is John W. Turner, who is prosperously engaged in his independent vocation on one of the most finely improved and most desirable ranches in the vicinity of Sebastopol. His specialty is the raising of a fine grate of apples and cherries. By birth Mr. Turner is an Englishman, and was born in 1867. In the locality of his birth he was reared and educated up to the age of seventeen years, when the family immigrated to America, in 1884, and the same year came to California. This was the second trip which the father, William Turner, had made to the state, having come here first during the period of the gold excitement, in 1854. Instead of following mining, however, he came to Sonoma county and near Stony Point became one of the first settlers, carrying on a large dairy industry. After spending a number of years in this locality he returned to England and continued there until coming here with his family in 1884.
The first experience of the younger Mr. Turner in California was as a ranch hand in the employ of Hiram Meacham, at Stony Point, Sonoma county, continuing with this employer for three years, after which he took charge of his father’s ranch, known as the Turner ranch, conducting it successfully for a number of years. Giving it up finally, he went to Oakland and for a time was on the police force of that city, later being engaged in railroad work for seven years, but at the end of this time he returned to Sonoma county and has ever since had charge of the old Turner ranch. Its location in the valley, five miles from Sebastopol, makes it well suited for the raising of fruits, and here he has one hundred and seventy acres under cultivation. Of this, eighty-five acres are in orchard set to Gravenstein apples, besides which he has forty acres in young trees, both bearing and non-bearing. Ten acres are in cherries of the choice Royal Ann variety. During the season of 1909 his apple crop amounted to five thousand boxes, while his yield of cherries amounted to six tons. In the meantime many of the young trees have come into bearing. Since the year 1890 he has made a specialty of the raising of these two fruits. Besides the management of his ranch Mr. Turner is also the representative of the fruit packing firm of Garcia & Maggini, of Sebastopol.
In 1890 Mr. Turner was united in marriage with Miss Marie E. Black, whose mother was one of the earliest settlers in Sonoma county. One son, Shannon, has been born to them. Fraternally Mr. Turner is identified with the Woodmen of the World, holding membership in Athens Camp, of Oakland.
History
of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
July 5, 2011 Pages 1069-1070
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