User:Jonwurl/AndrewJacksonTurner

Andrew Jackson Turner was a Wisconsin newspaper reporter and editor, Republican Party activist and organizer, and business operator. Born in Schuyler Falls, NY, where his family had a farm. 1855 he moved to Wisconsin and worked for Horace Rublee at the Wisconsin State Journal. He eventually settled in Portage. Helped found the Republican Party and attended its first two conventions. He was co-editor of the Portage City Record (1857-1861), and when that paper merged with the Portage Wisconsin State Register, served as co-editor of the newly established paper until 1878.

Turner was a member of the state assemblyman in 1863-1864, 1866, and 1869) He also held local office including several terms as mayor of Portage. He helped compile the Wisconsin Blue Book in 1872-74 From 1878 to 1882 he was  state Railroad Commissioner.

Murders in Portage
Portage and Fort Winnebago were emerging from its status as being the front edge of the frontier of settlement when Turner first settled there. Two sensational events involved Turner indirectly as a reporter, with the latter being influenced as well by Turner as an editorial opinion writer. John Baptiste DuBay was a successful and well-known fur trader who had once made the Fort Winnebago area his home. In 1857 DuBay was living primarily 100 miles north at a trading post and homestead on the Wisconsin River near present-day Knowlton, but he traveled to Portage occasionally on business. In a dispute over property between himself and a mill owner, he shot and killed one of the mill partners. He was nearly lynched by angry citizens, but was saved and tried in Madison. Due to DuBay's connections with high-profile figures of the era who testified about his character, twice the juries could not agree on conviction and he was released. As a reporter, Turner described the murder as "....." As a member of the Assembly in the 1860s, Turner was an advocate for venue change reform.

Then in 1869, a murder and robbery took place on an island near Portage. The perpetrator had at his disposal sophisticated legal representation, and was thought to be responsible for the murder of a judge in the case. Turner wrote about the injustice many times. After an event that brought the issue to a denouement, a well-organized crowd broke into the jail and hung the alleged murderer. Although there is no evidence Turner had any direct connection with this lynching, he along with many members of the local press were vocal in their criticism of lack of justice, and supportive of the results.

Turner was a political opponent of the Progressive Wing of the Republican Party, led by Robert La Fallotte. VERIFY THIS!!

He was the father of noted historian and historiographer Frederick Jackson Turner.