June 14 2016
The Victorian Gothic house at 120 North 5th Street in Jacksonville was built around 1885 by Irish immigrant, William M. Turner. Turner had engaged in mining and clerking in California, been appointed Assistant Federal Assessor for Northern California by President Lincoln, and served a year as Assistant Clerk of the Oregon Legislature before arriving in Jacksonville in 1866. For a number of years he was the Jacksonville telegraph operator, and at various times was also an insurance agent, Justice of the Peace, Indian agent for the Malheur reservation, and storekeeper. Turner is perhaps best known for his literary talents as a contributor to national magazines and editor of the Oregon Sentinel. His writing was acclaimed as “ready, fluent, fearless, and versatile” with “bright flashes of wit, keen strokes of sarcasm, and deep notes of pathos.”