Family History Notes and Photos by Bob Mesenbrink

William Turner was an interesting man. He has been featured in another blog post here,  William Turner - Boiler Maker . But my aunt Inie reminded me of a story that Freddy McGee told her. While Freddy was with his grandfather, James Turner, on the porch, a young man stopped by claiming to be James' brother. He said that their dad, William, told him of about James who was a successful farmer in Iowa. The visitor, also named Turner, was from Washington state. This would have been in the 1930s or so. None of James' siblings that I knew of would have been considered young at this time, and I knew that none of them lived in Washington. But Inie asked if William might have married again. So I checked. What I found out was surprising, and a bit shocking, especially for 1882. That was the year that 53 year-old William married 28 year-old Martha Martin. She was a widow, maiden name Bush, having lost her husband a few years earlier. She had two daughters living with her mother-in-law, an

Louis was a brother to my immigrant ancestor. Apparently he was the subject to a bit of controversy, at least among my family. My mother told me the story about how she and my dad and other relatives spent several hours trying to find the location of Louis' grave. And then, to my mom's great surprise, they said "There's that SOB!". They explained to her that he had been married several times and killed his wives. No doubt that was their belief, but I wondered what reason they had for thinking that. After all, he doesn't seem to have been a bad person. In fact, he seemed to have been well liked and prosperous. He was an immigrant and a veteran. Louis and Sophia Mesenbrink ca 1890 Louis was married three times. His first wife was Sophia Harms. They married in Jackson county Iowa in 1867. Louis and his family were the first settlers in Hanover township, Crawford county, Iowa, Louis naming the township for his old homeland in Germany. But Sophia died in