Biography
Alec Turner was born into slavery in 1845 on the Gouldin Plantation in Port Royal, Virginia. The son of an African native and Cherokee Indian, he learned to read at an early age. In 1862 he escaped slavery, making his way to the Union Army lines and joined the First New Jersey Cavalry as an assistant cook. He fought in the battle of Bull Run and was injured in the hip. After recovering he served as a surgeon's assistant. In the spring of 1863 he guided his regiment to his former plantation and allegedly killed the overseer.
Turner married Sally (or Sarah) Early, the daughter of Confederate General Jubal Early and one of his enslaved women. After the Civil War, the Turners first moved to Williamsburg, Maine, where Alec worked in the Merrill Quarry. They eventually left for Boston where they met sawyers Vestus Wilbur and Charles White of Grafton, Vermont who hired Alec to work for them.
The Turner's arrived in Grafton in the fall of 1872 and settled on Bare Hill. Working as a sawyer and a logger, Alec earned enough money to eventually purchase 150 acres of land that became Journey's End Farm. This place was the end of his long journey from slavery. Alec and Sally raised thirteen living children in Grafton. Sally's brother and family eventually joined them in Vermont. Alec received a full pension from the U.S. government for his service in the Civil War and was an active member of the G.A.R.
Alec and Sally's daughter Jessie, known as Daisy, lived to the age of 104 and recounted Alec's life story as well as her own experiences growing up black in Vermont to folklorist Jane Beck in the 1980s. The cabin at Journey's End (the house burned in 1962) is in the process of being preserved and is the first stop on Vermont African American Heritage Trail.Occupation
Sawyer
Logger
Farmer