Oscar Turner (1867–1902)

Oscar Turner was born at Woodlands, his father's farm near Woodville, Kentucky, on October 19, 1867.[1] He was the son of Caroline (Gardner) Turner and Oscar Turner, who served in Congress from 1879 to 1885.[1][2] Turner's great-grandfather was Winthrop Sargent, who served as governor of Mississippi Territory.[2] Edward Turner, who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, was his grand-uncle.[2]

Turner attended the public schools of Ballard County and Washington, D.C., as well as the Louisville Rugby School in Louisville, Kentucky.[1] He studied law at the University of Louisville, then at the University of Virginia School of Law, from which he graduated in 1886.[1][3][4] Having graduated at nineteen, Turner did not meet the minimum age required to practice law (twenty-one), so he furthered his education with extensive travel before attaining admission to the bar in 1891 and beginning to practice in Louisville.[1][3] In addition to practicing law, Turner was active in several business ventures, to include mines in Mexico, a Dallas, Texas, book publishing firm, and real estate including farms and timberland.[1]

A Democrat, in 1898, Turner was elected to the United States House of Representatives.[1] He served in the Fifty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1899, to March 3, 1901).[1] He declined to run for a second term in 1900 and resumed the practice of law in 1901.[1]

In July 1902, Turner became ill while on board a train near Dallas, where he was traveling for business.[1] Turner was hospitalized at St. Paul Sanitarium in Dallas, but refused heart surgery and asked to be taken home.[1] He traveled to Louisville by train but did not recover.[1] Turner died at "Melrose", his home in the Crescent Hill section of Louisville, on July 17, 1902.[1] He was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.[1]

In 1901, Turner married Mary Jane Caldwell, the daughter of Ben F. Caldwell.[1] They were the parents of a son, also named Oscar Turner, who was born on May 3, 1902, and died on June 13, 1975.[1] In 1909, Turner's widow married William Norman Cottrell (1870-1916), a Chicago attorney and judge.[5]

• United States Congress. "Oscar Turner (id: T000426)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Oscar Turner at Find a Grave