Alvin Hope Turley
1855-1872

Born: 13 November 1855 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California1
Died: 29 May 1872 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah2
Buried: 30 May 1872 at Salt Lake City Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah3
FamilySearch ID: K29F-SPK
FindaGrave Memorial ID:  69638372

Alvin was the son of Theodore Turley and Ruth Jane Giles.

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Life Sketch

Alvin Hope Turley was born 13 November 1855 in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California.4 He was the youngest of Theodore Turley’s children. Alvin’s mother was Ruth Jane Giles, who married Theodore Turley in 1850.5 Alvin was the youngest of Ruth’s three sons. His two older brothers were Joseph Orson Turley and Jacob Omner Turley.

Alvin was only two years old when the Turley family evacuated San Bernardino in late 1857 and spent Christmas Day in the Cajon Pass. In Southern Utah, the family settled initially in Cedar City but then moved south to Washington.6 Alvin was four years old when the family from Washington to Minersville, Utah, in February 1860.7 He was listed on George Roberts’ roster of Minersville students in April 1862.8 A few years later, Alvin’s family moved to nearby Beaver, Utah.9 Alvin was fifteen years old at the time of his father’s death in August 1871.10

In the spring of 1872, Alvin contracted typhoid fever. He was taken to Salt Lake City, two hundred miles north of Beaver, and stayed at the home of Amasa M. Lyman. Lyman noted Alvin’s arrival on Saturday, 25 May, where his mother, Ruth Turley, met him.11 Four days later, on 29 May, Amasa Lyman recorded Alvin’s death.

May 29, 1872; Wednesday. Made some calls for medicine for [teenager] Alvin [Turley]. Returned and remained with him until he died which occured at half-past 3 oclock P.M. As I was going to the Telegraph Office to let Mr Franklin of Beaver know of Alvin’s death I received from Marion a telegram informing me of the death at 3 oclock of the wife of my son A[masa] M. Junior. Her name was Olive Felshaw. I wrote a letter to Omner Turley in Star district to let him know the condition of his brother… Alvin H. Turley was 16 years and 6 months old at the time he passed away.

Scott H. Partridge, Ed., Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa M. Lyman, 1832-1877 (Salt lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2016), 693.

Amasa Lyman arranged for the burial of Alvin at the Salt Lake Cemetery. He helped purchase the plot next to the resting place of Theodore Turley’s wife, Mary Clift Turley, who died in 1850.12 Lyman also wrote Alvin’s death notice for a local newspaper.13 Alvin was buried in the afternoon of Thursday, 30 May 1872. Amasa Lyman likely conducted those funeral services.14

Alvin Hope Turley’s headstone at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Related Links

Timeline

1855
November 13: Alvin Hope Turley was born in San Bernardino, California.15

1857
December 25: Two-year-old Alvin spent Christmas Day with his family on the Cajon Pass en route to Utah.16

The Turley family resided in Cedar City for most of 1858. By the end of 1858, the Turley family moved to Washington, Utah. They remained there, where Theodore Turley operated a gristmill, until February 1860 when the family moved north to Minersville, Utah.17

1860
February 23: John D. Lee recorded the Turley family among a larger group of Washington residents moving to Minersville. “About 9 morning T. Turley, including Fred & Stephen Franklin & their Families, also Wm. Wood, McKnight, Jos. Glossop & Jno. Lee & their Families, & effects all roled out for Minersville, Beaver county.18
July 21: Four-year-old Alvin was enumerated in the household of Theodore Turley in Beaver, Beaver County, Utah, for the 1860 U.S. census. They were living in Minersville at the time. (It appears that the census taker recorded all inhabitants of Beaver County as residing in Beaver City.)19

1862
April 20: Alvin was among a number of Theodore Turley’s children and grandchildren recorded in a roster of students attending the Minersville School in 1862. He was six years old at the time.20

1865
November 12: Alvin’s parents, Theodore and Ruth Turley, moved to Beaver, Utah.21

1870
July 17: Alvin was enumerated in the household of Theodore Turley in Beaver City, Beaver County, Utah, for the 1870 U.S. census.22

1871
August 18: Alvin’s father, Theodore Turley, died in Beaver, Utah. Alvin was fifteen years old at the time.23

1872
May 25: “Mr. Levi” brought Alvin, who was sick, to Amasa M. Lyman’s home in Salt Lake City, Utah.24
May 29: Sixteen-year-old Alvin died from typhoid fever at Amasa M. Lyman’s home in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah.25
May 30: Alvin Hope Turley was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery next to Theodore Turley’s wife, Mary Clift Turley.26

Important Places

San Bernardino, California: Alvin Hope Turley was born in 1855 in San Bernardino, California.
Southern Utah: Alvin lived with his family briefly in Cedar City and Washington before moving to Minersville. There, he attended school with his brother, Jacob Omner, and several nephews and a niece. In 1865, Alvin and his parents moved to Beaver, Utah. Alvin spent the bulk of his life in Beaver, from 1865 to 1872.
Salt Lake City, Utah: Alvin Hope Turley died from typhoid fever in Salt Lake City, Utah, in May 1872. He was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery. In 2016, a headstone was installed for Alvin Hope Turley at his unmarked grave, paid for by members of the Theodore Turley Family Organization.

  1. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1896, Record of the Dead Book B, p. 89, interment no. 2900, Alvin Turley, 29 May 1872, image 204 of digital film 7420258 at FamilySearch.org, digitized from FHL 1299167, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9CR-TTG6?i=203&cc=2094273&cat=23661, accessed March 2021.
  2. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1896, Record of the Dead Book B, p. 89, interment no. 2900, Alvin Turley, 29 May 1872, image 204 of digital film 7420258 at FamilySearch.org, digitized from FHL 1299167, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9CR-TTG6?i=203&cc=2094273&cat=23661, accessed March 2021; Scott H. Partridge, ed., Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa M. Lyman, 1832-1877 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2016), 693.
  3. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 694; FindaGrave.com, memorial page for Alvin Hope Turley (13 Nov 1855–29 May 1872), memorial no. 69638372, citing Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA.
  4. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1896, Record of the Dead Book B, p. 89, interment no. 2900, Alvin Turley, 29 May 1872, image 204 of digital film 7420258 at FamilySearch.org, digitized from FHL 1299167, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9CR-TTG6?i=203&cc=2094273&cat=23661, accessed March 2021.
  5. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline.
  6. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline.
  7. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline. John D. Lee recorded the Turley family among a larger group of Washington residents moving to Minersville on 23 February 1860. Robert Glass Cleland and Juanita Brooks, eds., A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876 Vol. 1 (San Marino, Calif.: The Huntington Library, 1955), 237, digitized at HathiTrust.org.
  8. The five Turley family members on the Minersville School list of 20 April 1862 were “Theadore Lyman, Ira Lyman, Omner Turley, Alvin Turley,…Elizabeth Franklin.” Omner and Alvin were children of Theodore and Ruth Turley. Theodore, Ira, and Elizabeth were Theodore Turley’s grandchildren, the children of daughters Priscilla Rebecca Turley Lyman and Sarah Elizabeth Turley Franklin. Minersville Centennial Committee,They Answered the Call: A History of Minersville, Utah, 2nd ed. (Bountiful, Utah: Family History Publishers, 1997), 143.
  9. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline. David Roche Turley II, Minersville and Beaver Field Trip timeline.
  10. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline.
  11. Based on the phrasing, it appears Ruth may have already been in Salt Lake City when “Mr. Levi” brought Alvin to Amasa Lyman’s house. Scott H. Partridge, ed., Thirteenth Apostle: The Diaries of Amasa M. Lyman, 1832-1877 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2016), 693.
  12. The 1872 purchaser of the plot was recorded in cemetery records as Theodore Turley’s estate, but Lyman noted in his journal that he “engaged in making provisions for burying Alvin” and “settled with the Sexton for the Burial of Mrs [Ruth] Turleys son.” Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 694.
  13. Given the Lyman and Turley family association with the Godbeites, the notice was likely published in the Tribune. We have not yet located this death notice. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 694.
  14. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 694; Edward Leo Lyman, Amasa Mason Lyman, Mormon Apostle and Apostate: A Study in Dedication (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 2009), 473.
  15. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1896, Record of the Dead Book B, p. 89, interment no. 2900, Alvin Turley, 29 May 1872, image 204 of digital film 7420258 at FamilySearch.org, digitized from FHL 1299167, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9CR-TTG6?i=203&cc=2094273&cat=23661, accessed March 2021.
  16. “Brigham Young ordered their return to Utah in mid-winter and Aunt Sara told me they spent Xmas day camped on summit in El Cajon Pass in the snow.” Letter from Joseph Soll Turley, 6653 Olcott St., Tujunga, CA 91042, grandson of Theodore Turley and Ruth Jane Giles, to the Theodore Turley Family Organization on 4 Aug. 1971, see 1971 Letter from Joseph Soll Turley to Descendants of Theodore Turley.
  17. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline.
  18. Cleland and Brooks, A Mormon Chronicle, 237.
  19. 1860 U.S. census, Utah Territory, Beaver Co., Beaver, p. 135, dwelling 1141, family 1018, Alven H Turley in household of Theodore Turley, image on Ancestry.com.
  20. The five Turley family members on the Minersville School list of 20 April 1862 were “Theadore Lyman, Ira Lyman, Omner Turley, Alvin Turley,…Elizabeth Franklin.” Omner and Alvin were children of Theodore and Ruth Turley. Theodore, Ira, and Elizabeth were Theodore Turley’s grandchildren, the children of daughters Priscilla Rebecca Turley Lyman and Sarah Elizabeth Turley Franklin. Minersville Centennial Committee,They Answered the Call, 143.
  21. See Theodore Turley’s Timeline. David Roche Turley II, Minersville and Beaver Field Trip timeline.
  22. 1870 U.S. census, Utah Teritory, Beaver Co., Beaver, p. 15, dwelling 122, family 109, Alvin Turley in household of Theodore Turley, image on Ancestry.com.
  23. Amasa M. Lyman received word of Theodore Turley’s death on 22 Aug. 1871. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 666.
  24. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 693.
  25. Utah, Salt Lake City Cemetery Records, 1847-1896, Record of the Dead Book B, p. 89, interment no. 2900, Alvin Turley, 29 May 1872, image 204 of digital film 7420258 at FamilySearch.org, digitized from FHL 1299167, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9CR-TTG6?i=203&cc=2094273&cat=23661, accessed March 2021; Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 693.
  26. See Special Projects: Mary Clift Turley & Alvin Hope Turley Headstones. Partridge, Thirteenth Apostle, 694; FindaGrave.com, memorial page for Alvin Hope Turley (13 Nov 1855–29 May 1872), memorial no. 69638372, citing Salt Lake City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, USA.