Bio: Turner, Charles E. (1855 – 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Turner, Wilcox, Whiting, Fletcher, Segelke, Kolhaus, Parcher, Stewart, Bardine, Scholfield, Gamble

---Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Turner, Charles E. (6 January 1855 – 19??)

CHARLES E. TURNER, president of the Wausau Box and lumber Company at Wausau and interested also in other directions pertaining to the civic and material welfare of the city as well as to his personal concerns, was born at Port Atkinson, Jefferson County, Wis., January 6, 1855, and is a son of George Francis and Mary (Wilcox) Turner.  

George Francis Turner was born in Hamilton County, N. Y., and died at Port Atkinson in 1884, when aged seventy-two years. He led an agricultural life after coming to Wisconsin sometime in the forties. He married Mary Wilcox who was born also in Hamilton County and died at Port Atkinson, in her sixty-eighth year. They had the following children: Nellie, who is deceased; George and Nettie, both of whom died young; Mary, who is the wife of George Whiting of Markesan, Wis.; Carrie A., who is the wife of Albert Fletcher of Elgin, Ill.; Fred B., who is a resident of Oskaloosa, Iowa; and Charles E. who was the fifth of the family in order of birth.  

Charles E. Turner attended the district schools and the Jefferson Liberal Institute at Jefferson, Wis., and was twenty years old when he put his books aside and started into business as an apiarist, for which he had been preparing for four years. On a farm in Jefferson County he continued in the culture of bees and production of honey until 1881 and when he retired from this industry owned 400 swarms of bees, for three years having been engaged in the business at Dancy, in Marathon County. Mr. Turner then entered the employ of Segelke, Kolhaus & Co., mill operators at La Crosse, Wis., as store manager and bookkeeper and continued until October, 1888, at which time he came to Wausau where he became general manager for Parcher — J. and A. Stewart, lumbermen. He remained with the above firm until August, 1892, when the Wausau Box and Lumber Company was organized, of which he was one of the incorporators, becoming president, with C. V. Bardine as vice president and W. B. Scholfield as secretary and treasurer. In 1898 Mr. Turner and Mr. Scholfield purchased the entire business and they have continued together ever since. The capital involved is $100,000 and the product is knockdown boxes, box shocks and crates, shipments being made to all parts of the United States and to Mexico, employment being afforded some 135 operatives, about 13,000,000 feet of lumber being consumed annually. The plant is representative of one of the strongest business concerns of Wausau. Mr. Turner is a stockholder and one of the directors in the First National Bank at Wausau, is president of the Public Library board and for a number of years has served as a member of the water commission, his influence having been considerable in promoting the establishing of the city's public utilities. Since 1896 Mr. Turner has been identified with the Democratic Party.  

In March, 1893, Mr. Turner was married to Miss Georgianna Gamble, daughter of William Gamble, of Wausau, and they have four children: Wells E., who is a student at Beloit; Grace Adelaide, who is a student in the Wausau High School; and Charles and George F. Mr. Turner is a member of the Universalist Church, and is a director of the Wausau Club. Fraternally he is a Mason.