By Adrienne Williams, TTFO Secretary
Admin note: Clarifications and notes added by the secretary after the meeting are indicated by italics. Edits were also made by webmaster Mary Ann Clements for this blog post.
Attending (20): Mary Ann Clements, Natalie Tanner, Julie Hatch, Richard Turley Jr., Janet Packham, Kay Lovell, Ted Pyper, David Turley, Ann Lewis, Reuben Judd, John Bushman, Lyndsey (David’s sister), Ann Turley, Gayle Juhl, Joyce Norton, Sarah Turley Stout, Sharon Gray, Luana Rogers, Adrienne Williams
Welcome by Ted Pyper, TTFO President
Opening Prayer: Janet Packham
Ted Pyper introduced the new Zoom meeting format and an overview of the first hour meeting. Introductions were made by a few participants, including the editors of the Theodore Turley Papers.
David Turley gave a presentation about the 2016 Beaver trip, with the assistance of Natalie Tanner. They shared photos, information about the different locations visited, and maps. Additional information, including some addresses, can be found on pages 4-9 of the March 2017 newsletter. The link to Carolee Pyper’s slideshow that David mentioned is on page 4 of that newsletter. Sites discussed:
- Fillmore Territorial State House
- Beaver County Records Room @ County Court House
- Mountain View Cemetery (Beaver, UT)
- Headstones for Theodore & Ruth Jane Giles, William & Ann Greenwood, Edward & Mary Tolton
- William Greenwood home (Sarah Greenwood’s father)
- Edward Tolton Home — There are 2 Edward Tolton homes in Beaver. This one is the basement portion of a house west of I-15. Drive west on Rt. 21/Center St, turn south @ Blackner Ln and drive to the end.
- Minersville Cemetery (Minersville, UT)
- Graves at the cemetery include Frederick Turley, Joseph Orson Turley, Mary Elizabeth Lightner.
- Minersville — John & Melissa Turley home. A local hotel owner has two houses full of things collected from families in the area.
David mentioned that Utah Tech University (formerly Dixie State University) is getting Leo Lyman’s collection of research papers. Admin note: Leo wrote books about the Mormon colony at San Bernardino and early church leader Amasa Mason Lyman, both of which mention Theodore Turley’s family. One of Amasa Mason Lyman’s plural wives was Priscilla Rebecca Turley.
Other locations near Beaver that might be of interest during a family trip include Fort Cameron, the Tushar mountains, the old courthouse/DUP museum, and the Creamery. There is also camping, hiking, and fishing.
David would like to find the mining claims associated with the Turley family. Deed records for mines in the county can be found at the records office in Beaver. Many of these property records have also been digitized and are available to view at FamilySearch.org.
The only known original photograph of Theodore Turley is at the Territorial State House in Fillmore, Utah. Admin note: see Theodore’s Photo page for background on how David discovered that photo!
The location of Theodore’s blacksmith shop in Beaver was not discovered until after the 2016 Beaver field trip. His shop was on the west side of Main Street, between Center Street and 100 North. It was located just north of the middle of the block.
There was also discussion of the original photo of Isaac Turley and Sarah Greenwood with their children found on the Beaver field trip. Janet Packham mentioned that she added a similar type of family group photo of Isaac Turley and Clara Ann Tolton to FamilySearch. The photo was shared in the TTFO Facebook group after the meeting.
Hot Topics
- Theodore Turley Papers update – Rick Turley said they are just about ready to get started on them again.
- It would be helpful if there were other people who would like to help with the research. Also, if you have photos or papers related to Theodore Turley, please share them. Admin note: you can contact the organization here on the website.
- Reuben and Rick shared a quote from Joseph Smith about Theodore: “Friendship is like Theodore’s blacksmith shop, welding iron to iron”. Joseph valued friendship, especially loyalty, by the end of his life, and he counted Theodore as one of his good friends.
- Ben Pykles, Director of Historic Sites for the LDS Church, has been using ground-penetrating radar in the last decade to investigate Theodore Turley’s Nauvoo property. With Rick’s assistance, there is possible access to additional sites/items of interest if there was another trip to Nauvoo.
- We have two or three possible Colonia Juarez contacts: Luana’s brother, Brent, & Rick Turley are going later this year. Janet Packham is meeting with relative who has been in the Colonia Juarez temple presidency. He said if you plan to come down, don’t drive in with a US license plate.
Close of first hour meeting
Business Meeting
Attending (10): Mary Ann Clements, Ann Lewis, John Bushman, Gayle Juhl, Reuben Judd, Luana Rogers, Ted Pyper, Kay Lovell, Adrienne Williams, Ann Turley
Meeting Minutes from September 24, 2022, were read by Adrienne Williams, TTFO secretary
Kay Lovell, TTFO treasurer, gave the financial report encompassing September 30, 2022 – April 8, 2023. There were receipts totaling $1,000.00 and Disbursements for the web site, Zoom, and Utah business license totaling $354.65. The ending balance was $7,091.40.
Discussion about what to do with the donations that come in beyond website and business expenses. Possible options mentioned were scholarships, story contests, videos, and headstones. Previously, funds were used for travel for out-of-state officers, newsletter copies, and postage (usually covered by dues). We’ve also used TTFO donations towards headstone projects.
Mary Ann shared a book written by Ben Pykles, who was mentioned earlier by Rick Turley. It is titled Excavating Nauvoo: The Mormons and the Rise of Historical Archaeology in America. There is only a brief mention of Theodore Turley’s property. The book gives a good understanding of the LDS and RLDS (now Community of Christ) churches acquiring property in Nauvoo and performing the excavations and restorations in the twentieth century.
She also shared a copy of Edward Turley’s diary of his 1871 travel from Birmingham, England, to New Zealand. Mary Ann received this copy earlier this year from Bill McKeich, Edward’s descendant, in New Zealand. The current theory is that Edward Turley’s grandfather, Joseph Turley, was a brother to Theodore Turley’s father, William Turley. Still working to authenticate the connection. Bill also sent Mary Ann a compilation of family history material on his branch of the Turley family in England and New Zealand.
Website & Email Report
- 2022 Top 5 pages:
- Total views in 2022 were 3,400. Total visitors were 1,400.
- We are still using MailChimp’s free email service. We have 930 current subscribers, down 8 from the last meeting (3 people unsubscribed and 5 emails were found invalid). 46% of people opened the last email sent. Subscribers are defined as email address that appear to be valid and they have not chosen to unsubscribe from receiving TTFO emails.
How are we doing with family engagement? The Theodore Turley Family Organization Facebook group is active. Ann Lewis and Mary Ann actively post information there. Can we dual post on Instagram? Wondering if Instagram can do groups? Do we set up an Instagram page? Who wants to take care of it? Is it lasting? What about links? The in-thing is short videos. This is what we need to engage the younger folks. Could we make a/some video(s) where we make the picture of the ancestor speak (using My Heritage? Or another program?)
The registered agent for our Idaho Business License must be assigned to an Idaho resident.
To Do’s
- Add/update a Bibliography to the website of books that might be of interest to family members. A question came up regarding who physically keeps the books that children might not want to keep at parent’s death. Admin note: Contact us if you’d like to donate unwanted books to the TTFO.
- Local histories – El Paso TX, Snowflake AZ, etc. We have the history of the Colonies. Something similar from other family locations.
- Ann Lewis has books and will send information to Mary Ann. Include books about Theodore’s children.
- Add a cemeteries page to the website – separate from the places tab. Include a link to Find-A-Grave or a photo with location. Could be indexed by person and by location. Make this the Memorial Day Project. Mary Ann has a private Ancestry page with all the Turley family she is aware of, approximately 25,000 names.
- Add images of signatures to descendant biographical pages, if available.
- Mary Ann needs volunteer help. This could simply be people providing information to add to the website. Admin note: Check out the What Can I Do? page for more ideas.
- Create a collection of corrections to the Red Book from the family lines.
- Do we add reports from the family reps to the Bi-Annual meeting agendas?
- Reuben Judd will send the PDFs from his family presentations to Ann Lewis and Mary Ann
Our next TTFO Meeting will be October 7, 2023, at 10:00am MDT via Zoom. Preliminary agenda items:
- Presentation on Churchville by Reuben, approximately ten to twenty minutes. There is information about Churchville on the TTFO website and Ann Lewis will get additional information that she has to Reuben.
- Possibly a presentation (video) on Colonial Juarez. Ted will talk to Rick and Janet. Give them specific site requests.
- Discuss the Board of Directors – who and responsibilities
- Volunteer opportunities – share the suggestions/ideas to the larger group that were made during this business hour?