The document traces the history of the Turrentine family from their arrival in America in 1745 as indentured servants up through family reunions held in the 20th and 21st centuries. It details how Samuel and Alexander Turrentine first settled in Pennsylvania and North Carolina before their descendants moved west and south. Over time, the family scattered across states like Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri and beyond but continued to stay connected through periodic reunions bringing hundreds of relatives together.

1. TURRENTINE FAMILY
Look back to learn, Look around for common ties ,
Look ahead to prepare the future

2. Arrival in America
The Kouli Kan docked in Newcastle-on-the-Delaware and on
November 14, 1745 was "entered in" at the Custom House in
Philadelphia. On November 26, 1745 "Alexander Torrentine," a
servant from Ireland, who had arrived on the Kouli Kan, was taken
before the Mayor of Philadelphia, James Hamiliton, by James
Templeton, who assigned "Torrentine's" indenture to Neal
McClaskey of Chester County, Pennsylvania, for the consideration
of eighteen English pounds and customary dues.
Three days later on November 29, "Samuel Torrentine," described in
the same way was assigned to John Dicky, also of Chester County,
for the same eighteen English pounds and customary dues .
With the arrival of Samuel and Alexander Turrentine on the
privateering brigantine Kouli Kan, another family was established in
America.

3. Freeman
• Alexander is listed as a "freeman" on the 1753
and 1754 Tax Lists of West Nottingham
Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
• Sometime during the late summer or fall of 1754,
Samuel and Alexander Turrentine planted a
"wheat patch" in what is now Menno Township,
Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. This "wheat patch"
was located on Kishocquillas Creek (pronounced Kish-e-
kō-kwil´-lis), a tributary of the Juniata (pronounced June-ee-at-a)
River, across the Allegheny Mountains.

4. Kishacoquillas Creek
has been built up and
none of it looks as it did
in 1754.
But some places still
have a wild flavor.
They built a cabin, but
left due to the dangers of
raids when the French
and Indian War broke
out.

5. According to tradition,
they had buried two
mattocks, two axes,
and a jug of whiskey in
the northwest corner of
the cabin floor before
leaving. McDowell
came to Kishcoquillas
Valley with the return of
the settlers about 1761.
He found the mattocks,
axes and whiskey,
although the cabin had
been burned.
Samuel and Alexander
along with many others
moved south away
from the danger,
settling in Orange
County, North Carolina.

6. On January 29, 1761, Samuel "Torrenton" was granted 394 acres of land
at the "Fork of Little River".
Alexander "Torintin" was granted 275 acres of land, "Both sides of Buffalo
Creek," on January 9, 1761 and he was also granted 369 acres of land
"beginning at a Black Jack" on February 9, 1761.
Two years later, on March 2, 1763, they were able to sell their property in
Pennsylvania. Each received two pounds, twelve shillings, and six pence
for his property. Because of the change in currency, it is difficult to
determine how much money that would be today.

7. Yellow – Turrentine
Blue – families married
into

8. Cemetery is located
on the old Turrentine
farm.
Field stone markers
for the immigrant
Samuel and
Alexander as they
appeared in 1950s.

9. Finding the Cemetery
A group lead by Durwood Turrentine Stokes
drove to the old farm and found Clyde
Turrentine, a descendant of former slaves who
at that time owned the old home place. She went
with them down the road a mile or so to the
cemetery and explained that from times of
slavery, the colored people had buried their dead
on one side and the white on the other. Her
father bought the place after the last Turrentine
living there died. She was not aware that there
were any Turrentines other than her people
anywhere.

10. Mattie Clyde Turrentine

11. • Durwood’s wrote: “When we arrived we found a
badly overgrown place in a grove… Younger
members of the party began to pull back the
branches and read. ..Samuel Turrentine, 1801,
age 86 years, And now I was puzzled for this
man was too old to be a son of the first Samuel.
While I was pondering this, Billy called out,
“Here is one marked Alexander Turrentine, died
1784 and Daddy, beside it is one marked
Deborah Turrentine died 1799. With a shock
that penetrated my entire system with the force
of electricity, I realized that I knew who these
were and that I was standing beside the graves
of the original immigrants.

12. The inventory of Alexander’s estate in 1784. An Inventory of the
perishable property of Alexander Torrentine Dec'd: 4 negroes, 10
horses, 17 head of Cattle, 8 head of Sheep, head of Hoggs, 4 beds and
furniture, tables, 16 Chairs, 1 Chest, 8 pewter dishes, 17 pewter plates,
6 basons, 3 potts, 3 ploughs and Tacklings, 4 Axes, 1 Tea Kittle, 1 Set of
knives and forks, 6 Pewter Spoons, Bibles, 1 English Dictionary, 1
Pepper box, 1 Candle Stick, and Snuffers, 1 Nutmeg Grater, 1 Razer and
Strop, 1 Log chain, 1 Set of boxes for a Wagon, 3 bridles, bottles, 1 Tea
Pot, 1 Smoothing Iron, 1 P. of Tailers Sheers, 1 p. of Wool Sheers, 3
Hoes, 1 Spade, 1 Coopers Howel, 1 p. of Stilliards, 1 Pick fork, 1
Confession of Faith.
What is interesting are the books in the inventory: more than one Bible,
an English dictionary, and a Confession of Faith which connects the
family to the Presbyterian faith, although in later generations many
descendants came become Methodist ministers. So many I have been
told, that the reunions were moved from even years to odd years to
avoid conflicts with the every other year meeting of the Methodist
ministers.
Education and faith

13. Turrentines Move West and South
Around 1795, about 50 years after the arrival and Samuel and Alexander,
the family began to split and move again.
James, the first-born son of Samuel's second wife, left Orange County
with his young family and settled near Milledgeville, Georgia.
Between 1810 and 1820, Samuel’s children, John, Jane, and possibly
Martha, and their families moved to Morgan County, Alabama.
Around 1807, Alexander's children and their families, with the exception
of Daniel and Mary who had died, went to the Duck River, in what is now
Bedford County, Tennessee. James led the caravan.
Samuel’s daughter Sarah and her husband Alexander Stewart also
moved to Tennessee.
Around 1815, Samuel came, completing the family migration.
By 1830, of the known living children of Samuel and Alexander, only
Samuel, Absalom, and Daniel were left in Orange County.

14. Turrentine Places
Turrentine Academy – 1890,
Halls Mills Pond Road,
Bedford County, Tennessee
Turrentine Hall,
Marionville Collegiate Institute,
Lawrence County, Missouri

15. More Turrentine Places
Turrentine Hall Greensboro College,
North Carolina1910 -1969
Served as residence of the College
President Samuel Bryant Turrentine
from 1913-1935
I need to get a pictures of :
• Turrentine Hall at Henderson
University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
and
• Turrentine Baptist Church,
Mocksville, North Carolina
Here is an interior picture of the William
Newton and Elizabeth Horton
Turrentine Heart Education Center, in
Greenville, South Carolina

16. Turrentine Surname Census Figures
The numbers for the census have changed over time as additional
transcription errors have been found.
1860 – Turrentine – 230 on free schedule - 55 households
19 Turrentine households with 193 enslaved persons
Turntine - 17
1870 – After the Civil War -
Turrentine – 327 (203 white, 124 black and mulatto)
Turntine - 69 (49 white and 20 black and mulatto)
about 30% of the enslaved in 1860 took the Turrentine/Turntine
surname—seemed to be all or none from a given owner, with the
exception a widow in Louisiana, 2 persons in Georgia, and, in
Sevier County, only the descendants of Gilbert took the surname
1940 – the last year where the census is open - 887 Turrentine
- 163 Turntine
Total –1,050

17. Turrentine Crest

18. Family Crest – Cindy Keyton
Four parts of the shield
• Book
• 2 mattocks
• Handbell
• Ship
Colors
• Red and gold
• Motto

19. Family Crest – Cindy Keyton
Four parts of the shield
• Book for education
& religion

20. Family Crest – Cindy Keyton
Four parts of the shield
• 2 mattocks

21. Family Crest – Cindy Keyton
Four parts of the shield
• Handbell

22. Family Crest – Cindy Keyton
Four parts of the shield
• Ship

23. Turrentine Reunions
In 1941, A. W. McAlester wrote:
“One of the weaknesses of our present-day civilization is that it has
broken loose from its roots of the past. There are some things which
must be left behind with the past. There are other things of the past in
which alone the present can find security, and the future find
fulfillment.
Institutions like the Turrentine family reunion tend to deepen and
strengthen the roots of the past and to make firm a precious
anchorage to which we need to hold fast.”

24. 1st – 1941 – Hillsboro,
Orange County, NC

25. 2nd – 1950 – Lockesburg, Sevier County, Arkansas
News article said over 300 people from 10 states attended, first integrated.

26. 3rd-1952 Shelbyville, Tennessee
• Turrentines came to this area in 1807 and
remained, some still on the same land.
Some of the Samuel Turrentine descendants

27. 4th - 1955 – Marionville, Missouri

28. 5th – 1957 -Gadsden, Alabama
• Daniel Clower
Turrentine was
one of the first
white settlers in
this area.
• These are his
grandchildren
who attended
the reunion.

29. 6th – 1959 - Hillsboro,North Carolina
Ollie Turrentine Williams – age 88 and Raymond Hazen - age 5

30. 11th -1969 – Nashville, Tennesee

31. 12th – 1973 – Chapel Hills, NC

32. 1981 – Birmingham, Alabama

33. 1983 - St. Louis, Missouri

34. 1985 – Chapel Hill, NC

35. 1989 – Tulsa, Oklahoma

36. 1993 - Texarkana

37. 2003 – Salt Lake City, Utah

38. 2006 - Nashville, Tennessee

39. 2008
Ft Worth
Texas
The group was so large
they divided into
Samuel and Alexander
descendants for the
pictures.

40. 2012 Anaheim, California

41. 2014 Reunion Chapel Hill

42. 2016 Chicago, Ilinois

43. 2018 Loveland, Colorado

44. 2021 Dallas, Texas
Sevier County, Arkansas Turrentines, family of the hosts

45. As I research more and more, I find connections between lines living in different
parts of the United States and Canada. I recently found a connection
between my husband’s line and the Turrentine line, although he is not a
Turrentine descendant.
There are some who contend that if you have even one ancestor who was
living in the American colonies at the time of the War for Independence, you
could probably find a link by blood, marriage, or business transaction to
anyone else who also had an ancestor living in that time period.
Our earliest Turrentine ancestors arrived in bondage, some became free men
and women in a matter of years, some did not see freedom in their lifetimes.
For many generations they toiled to make the futures of their descendants
brighter than their own. Our bondage now is of our own making.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director of the Institute for African and African-American
Research at Harvard University, did a genealogical and family history study
of successful blacks. He found a common thread, a thread that I have seen
in most Turrentine descendants of all colors: a belief in God, education and
hard work.