Frank Turner was born in Troy, Missouri September 28, 1819. His father,
Elias Turner, was born in New England and moved to Missouri as a child.
His mother, the former Keziah Barker, was born in North Carolina. When Frank
was a teenager, his father considered moving to Texas. He joined a group traveling
there to look for suitable land. He and a partner went ahead of the group to reconnoiter.
They were ambushed by robbers and murdered in 1837. Later a man named Quarles
was caught with Elias's watch and was hanged as his murderer.
In 1880 some of the then grown children took over the care of the vineyards and Frank returned
to Louisiana. Through his relatives there he met Cora Breedlove.
Cora Breedlove was born in Natchitoches in October 1863, the daughter of John Breendlove
and the former Mary Mueller. In 1865 John Breedlove was stationed at Vicksburg, Mississippi
to the Confederate Army. He developed pneumonia while there. As might be expected with the
status of medical care in those days, he was put on his horse and sent home to Natchitoches,
some 150 miles away. He arrived home several days later but died within a short time. The
young widow later remarried and moved with her young daughter to Alexandria, where the child
grew up. When she was 19 years old, Cora went to Plaquemine where she met Frank Turner.
They were married on March 22, 1882 in Plaquemine.
In those days there was a dike across the mouth of Bayou Plaquemine where it joined the
Mississippi River. It prevented the river from overflowing into the bayou and flooding
the land during high water. It also served as a passage-way between Plaquemine and the
land north of the bayou. Frank Turner owned and operated warehouses that served the river
boats that plied the Mississippi River. These warehouses were located upstream of the dike.
Frank and Cora built their home in this area and because they were the early white settlers
there, the settlement was named Turnerville. It was called that exclusively until some time in
the 1950's, when the name North Plaquemine crept in.
The Turners had two daughters, Elmire was born in 1883 and married Dr. Eugene Holloway.
He practiced medicine in Plaquemine and they lived there until their deaths in the 1960's.
Willie Gertrude was born in 1887 and married Victor Kurzweg, a business man of Plaquemine.
She died in 1985.
It is interesting to note that on his earlier trips from Missouri and Louisiana to California,
Frank traveled by covered wagon once and by sailing ship around Cape Horn at the tip
of South America another time.
Frank Turner was active until a ripe old age. He rode horseback and operated his business until
a year or so before his death at the age of 95. He took great pride in the fact that he was a direct
descendant of Myles Standish. He died September 30, 1914 and was buried in Pineville.
Mrs. Cora Turner lived in Turnerville until the levee was moved back and took the old family home
and surrounding property around 1939. She built a home on Baist Street in Plaquemine and lived
there for a number of years. She died on July 12, 1953 and was buried in Pineville next to Frank.