Harry Turner, a leading farmer of Fairmount township, is a native of England. He was born at Norfolk, January 29, 1851, and is a son of Robert and Mary (Davis) Turner, natives of England. His father was an Episcopalian minister and the parents died when Harry was about fifteen years old. The family consisted of Harry and a younger sister. Harry was educated in a private boarding school in Ramsgate, Kent, on the English Channel, where he received a very thorough course of instruction. In 1856, shortly after the death of his parents, when he was about fifteen years of age, he immigrated to America. After remaining a short time in New York, he went to Chicago, and then to Hobart, Ind., and shortly afterwards to Minnesota. He was in Minnesota about a year, and during that time became acquainted with some men from Kansas and when they returned to this State, he accompanied them to Miami county. When he came to this State he did not have a dollar. After working for a time in Miami and Osage counties, he came to Butler county in 1881. This appeared to be quite a new country then, compared with the present day conditions. He says, that in going from El Dorado to Fairmount township there were only two miles of road on the section line. All the rest of the way the trail ran diagonally across the section lines.

When Mr. Turner came to Butler county, he leased land for a num-

ber of years, and engaged quite extensively in cattle and hog raising. In 1900, he bought a farm on section 20 known as the old Clark place, which was homesteaded by James Clark about 1874, and the old stone barn which Mr. Clark built is still standing and is one of the old historic buildings of that section.

Mr. Turner was married in 1879 in Osage county, Kansas, to Miss Mary Dooty, a native of DeKalb county, Missouri, born in 1860. She is a daughter of J. B. and Serena (Harper) Dooty, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of North Carolina. The Dooty family came from Missouri to Kansas and settled at Lawrence shortly after Quantrill raided that town. After spending four years in Douglass county, in the vicinity of Lawrence, they removed to Osage county in December, 1868, and from Osage went to Miami county and in 1880 came to Butler county. The father, Rev. J. B. Dooty, was a Methodist minister. He died April 11, 1889. He was recognized as an able preacher and a gentleman of noble Christian character. His widow now resides in Osage county with her son. There were six children in the Dooty family, of whom Mrs. Turner is the second in order of birth. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have no children.

Mr. and Mrs. Turner are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Turner is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, having been identified with Whitewater Lodge No. 268 for twenty-five years. He is a Progressive Republican, and for years has been active in the ranks of the Republican party, having served as chairman of the township committee for twenty years. He has served on the local school board for a number of years, and has also been clerk and treasurer of Fairmount township a number of terms. He has always been a close student of the best literature as well as of men and affairs and there are very few standard English or American authors whose works he has not read. His favorite author is Dickens, although he greatly admires Wilkie Collins' writings. Mr. Turner has an extensive acquaintance throughout Butler county, and is one of the substantial citizens of Fairmount township who has met with well merited success.

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