Biography

William Turner was a prominent Georgia plantation owner and politician. He lived on the Turnwald Plantation near the town of Eatonton, in Putnam County, Georgia. Father of Joseph Addison Turner, a famous Southern author, William Turner served in the Georgia state legislature as clerk and representative. Turner met Seward in 1819, when Seward fled to Georgia after a dispute with his father over money. Seward became rector of a school in Putnam County, the Union Academy, of which the elder Turner served as a trustee and secretary. During his time in Georgia, Seward briefly stayed with Turner at the Turnwald Plantation. Thereafter, Turner maintained a correspondence with Seward, writing to him in the 1849 and in 1853, shortly before his death, urging Seward to preserve the Union as the debate over slavery in Congress intensified.