George Franklin Turner: Military Officer and Surgeon (1807–1854)

George Franklin Turner, military officer and surgeon, was born on April 22, 1807, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Robert and Martha (Jones) Turner. He graduated from Harvard College in 1826 and Harvard Medical School in 1830. At Harvard he studied under doctors, James Jackson and Walter Channing. James Jackson became the first professor of clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Walter Channing became the first professor of obstetrics, midwifery, and medical jurisprudence at Harvard College. Turner also studied medicine in the Army Hospital with Dr. B. Turner and briefly practiced medicine in Indiana before entering the United States Army.

With the rank of assistant surgeon, Turner was appointed into the U. S. Army on July 23, 1833. His first duty station was at Fort Mackinaw, Michigan, where he served from November 1833 through September 1835. He served at this post as one of three and sometimes four surgeons connected to the Second U. S. Infantry under Col. Hugh Brady. On July 18, 1834, George F. Turner married Mary Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of Robert Stuart and Elizabeth Emma Sullivan of Detroit, Michigan. They had five children.

Turner was transferred to Castle Pinckney, at Charleston, South Carolina, on September 30, 1835, to 1838, and served there when he was transferred to Florida, where he served during the Seminole War. From January 1838 to April 2, 1838, Turner served at Fort Marion at St. Augustine, Florida. He was transferred to Fort Heilman, where he served from April to late June 1838, when he left on furlough to join the staff of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Turner joined the garrison at Fort Mellon, Florida, on April 24, 1839. He later was appointed to serve at the Military Academy at West Point through April 24, 1840. While at that posting, he was promoted to full surgeon, with the rank of major, on January 1, 1840.

Turner was ordered to Fort Snelling, Iowa Territory (later Minnesota), where he reported to the post on May 29, 1840. While serving at Fort Snelling, he was also stationed at the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River until he was transferred to the Army in Mexico and left for that assignment on September 13, 1846. During the Mexican War, Turner served as a medical purveyor, in charge of a depot at Camargo. He arrived back at Fort Snelling on May 16, 1847, and served until July 29, 1848, when he was ordered to report to New Orleans.

In 1848 and 1849 Turner was transferred back to Michigan. On May 1, 1849, he joined the garrison at the Presidio of San Francisco, California, where he served as medical director for the department in October 1849 and made the weather observations at the presidio from March 1850 through May 1850. He left the post in September 1850. Turner awaited orders during 1850–51, when he was finally assigned to the Department of Texas.  

Surgeon Turner was assigned to the Department of Texas, Fort Croghan, on March 12, 1852. There he replaced Assistant Surgeon Samuel Wylie Crawford, who had been assigned to the post on the San Saba (Fort McKavett). Turner served as the last full-time medical officer at Fort Croghan, as soldiers were dispatched farther on the frontier from Fort Croghan starting in 1853. Turner transferred to Fort Mason, on September 23, 1853, and relieved Assistant Surgeon Lafayette Guild. Turner served at Fort Mason until he was transferred to serve as the only army surgeon at Headquarters Department, Corpus Christi, Texas; in December 1853. At age forty-seven, George Franklin Turner died of yellow fever on October 17, 1854, at Corpus Christi. His daughter Kate Stuart Turner also died of yellow fever in the same post city on the same day as her father. Turner’s body was transferred for burial where he was interred at Elmwood Cemetery, in Detroit, Michigan.