Daisy Turner: Difference between revisions

Daisy Turner was born in Grafton, Vermont in 1883 to Alec and Sally Turner, who were former slaves. She was famous for her oral recordings of her family's history, which can be traced back to Africa and England.

Alex (Alexander) Turner was a slave who escaped from his plantation at the start of the Civil War, and joined the 1st New Jersey Cavalry under the Union army. In the spring of 1863, Turner guided his regiment to his old plantation in Port Royal, Virginia where he killed his former overseer.

At the end of the war, Turner returned to New England where he worked as a logger. He and his wife Sally had a homestead in Grafton, Vermont where they raised 16 children. His strength was prodigious, and the Grafton Storekeeper once bet that if Alex carried a one hundred fifty pound barrel of flour home (uphill and over three miles) without setting it down he could have it for free. Alex went ahead and did so to feed his family but at the same time he was followed by forty or so men who carried their own "little jugs of jimmyjohn and hard cider....and after they all got up, they all got drunk." (Beck) One of his daughters, Zelma, called "Zeb", married a Boston man, John Grant, and pursuaded him to come to Grafton, where they raised a family.

A powerful presence, Daisy Turner was proud of her family heritage, and was a strong, outspoken woman from childhood to her death at the age of 104. She is remembered as a gifted storyteller and family historian. The Turner family homestead (they had 13 children in all) is located on the "Daisy Turner Loop", a biking trail near Grafton Pond. She had been a "striking beauty in her youth, with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes" (Beck) and led an exciting life, many of the details of which have been recorded carefully. Daisy can be seen reciting Civil War poetry, at the remarkable age of 104, in Ken Burns' critically acclaimed PBS documentary, The Civil War[1]. Her story continues to attract wide attention as part of an effort to preserve the folk history of Vermont and the United States. Hmose (talk) 16:40, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

• Jane Beck, On My Own; The Traditions of Daisy Turner, Video Recording, University of Vermont and Vermont Folklore Center

http://vermontfolklifecenter.org/multimedia/womenspeak/womenspeak_turner/

• http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16262568_ITM

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIe1nf38KkU

• http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=BGN080-009

• Five Dollars and a Jug of Wine, The History of Grafton, Vermont 1754-2000, Grafton Historical Society, pps 46, 70, 143, 202-204

• Tales of old Grafton, 1974, Cawley, ISBN 0-498-01277-8

• History of Grafton, Vermont, Francis A. Palmer, Shaw Press, Brattleboro, Vt, 1954