Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

J. Frank Turner (1844-1916)
MSA SC 3520-1567

Biography:

By Karen Dunaway Hare, Research Archivist at the Maryland State Archives, and Julia K. Lehnert, Public History student, UMBC, spring 2001.

Born at King's Creek, Talbot County, Maryland, November 2, 1844.  Son of Joseph Turner, Jr., and Mary (Clark) Turner.  Attended local schools.  Methodist.  Married Sallie Powell Hopkins on June 7, 1871; children included Henry P. Turner, the future Mrs. Walter Karcher, and the future Mrs. John Mackell.  Died in Easton, Talbot County, May 8, 1916.  Buried in Easton.

Recorder and Register of Wills for Talbot County.  Clerk of the Talbot County Circuit Court, 1873-84.  Comptroller of the treasury, 1884-88.  Practiced law in Talbot County with ex-governor Philip F. Thomas.  Spearheaded the building of the Hotel Avon in 1890, the largest hotel in town in Easton.  Appointed clerk of the Court of Appeals of Maryland to fill the unexpired term of J. Frank Ford, who died on February 26, 1901.  Appointed state's attorney for Talbot County, 1909-12.  Chair, Democratic State Central Committee.  Co-owner and editor, Easton Star newspaper, 1890s; purchased the Democrat and merged it with the Star in 1896 to form the Easton Star-Democrat, 1896.  Real estate broker, Easton.  Member, Methodist Church.

Turner's two terms as state comptroller, from 1884 to 1888, marked the height of his political career.  By all reports, Turner discharged his duties as fiscal officer of the state faithfully and his tenure appears to have been without controversy.  Like others who held the office before and after him, he struggled to disengage the state from its unproductive investments in "works of internal improvements," particularly the C & O and the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canals.  He took particular pride in his accomplishments in reducing the state debt and improving the financial viability of the sinking funds.  His last Annual Report, submitted in 1887, contained a detailed, synopsis of his service in office, showing, by his own estimates, a reduction in the state debt over his four-year term of $1.6 million, at the same time the investments in the sinking funds were increased almost threefold, from $500,000 in 1884 to $1.42 million in 1887.

The Annual Reports of the comptroller's office for the 1880s show a decade-long struggle to extricate Maryland from its ill-fated investments in "works of internal improvement."  Of particular concern were the state's unproductive investments in canal operations, namely, the C & O Canal and  the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal.  In 1884, the year Comptroller Turner took office, the state's claims (including bonds and unpaid interest) against the C & O Canal totaled more than $24.5 million, with another $1.4 million against the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal.  Although Comptroller Turner tried to put the best possible face on the situation, welcoming the "active and energetic" new president of the C & O and hoping that the Pennsylvania and Reading Rail Road (the lessee of the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal) would soon rebound from its financial difficulties, he did not foresee a speedy return to profitability for either company.  In fact, Turner struggled with the fate of both canals throughout his tenure as comptroller, fending off the attempts of frustrated bondholders to force a sale of the C & O and engaging in ultimately fruitless negotiations with the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroad to try to reach a settlement on defaulted interest payments on the Susquehanna and Tide Water.

Turner and his fellow comptrollers of the 1880s had much greater success in reducing the state debt during the decade.  Turner worked diligently throughout his four-year tenure to refinance the debt by retiring maturing state bonds that carried a six percent interest and reissuing in their place bonds carrying a three 1/2 percent interest, and he invested the additional funds in the state's general sinking funds.  By reducing the debt and shoring up the sinking funds, Turner hoped to pave the way for the eventual elimination of direct taxes that had been levied on Maryland citizens specifically to pay the state's debts.

The comptroller also became embroiled in the Oyster Wars of the 1880s, both in his role as the state's fiscal officer and as a member of the Board of Public
Works that supervised the state's Fisheries Fleet.  As Commissioners of the State Fishery Force, members of the Board of Public Works had the responsibility for maintaining the fleet, including authorizing repairs as necessary, writing contracts for new boats, ordering equipment for the boats, selling old boats, and periodically inspecting the fleet.  Their responsibilities also extended to personnel actions including appointing a commander and deputy commanders, hearing charges brought against officers, and hiring men to guard seized oyster boats.  As comptroller, Turner oversaw the necessary expenditures to carry out the state's duties, including the purchase of two new schooners for the fleet in 1884 and the annual payment of the officers and crew.

The Board's personnel responsibilities did not go unnoticed by the Democratic party bosses Arthur Pue Gorman and Isaac Freeman Rasin, who began using their connections in Annapolis to reward loyal Democrats with positions in the state's Oyster Navy.  By the mid-1880s, many of the oyster police were interested only in the pay and simply retreated rather than confront oystermen who were breaking the laws.  With an ineffectual police force, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay were largely left to the warring watermen until the Oyster Navy was revitalized by General Joseph Seth in 1888.  Meanwhile, the cost of the police force was straining the state treasury.  An act passed by the 1884 session of the General Assembly requiring the purchase of licenses for carrying oysters over state waters had contributed enough money to defray the costs of the Oyster Navy, but when that act was declared unconstitutional by the courts and license fees had to be refunded, the chronic underfunding of the Navy by the legislature began to show.  Comptroller Turner repeatedly called for the legislature either to reduce the expensive police force or provide increased funds to pay for it.  In response, the 1886 legislature passed a new Oyster Law retaining the previous police force but providing even lower revenues than under the old law, which Turner estimated would result in a shortfall of at least $20,000 per year.  The comptroller could only hope that "...the Board of Public Works will devise some plan by which the expenditures for the fiscal year 1887 shall be kept within current revenues from this source." (Comptroller's Annual Report 1886, 8.)

Thus the decade of the 1880s saw increasing fiscal responsibility and professionalism within the comptroller's office at the same time the state's financial activities were becoming increasingly complex.  In an uncertain economy, the comptroller managed to reduce the state's debt, exchanging high-interest bearing state bonds for lower-interest bearing ones while increasing investments in the sinking funds designed to pay for the debt.  As a member of the Board of Public Works, the comptroller exercised increasing responsibility in the management of state properties and in the hiring and management of state personnel.

Turner wanted to serve a third term as comptroller, but he lost Gorman's support.  Instead, Gorman supported Elihu E. Jackson for governor, and there could not be two Eastern Shore natives in the positions of governor and comptroller.  The Easton Democrat, a staunchly Gormanite paper, commented on the situation in on July 2, 1887.  The Democrat opined that Turner was not reliable enough as a Gorman supporter:  "...he is a Turner man first, and if it suits him he will do what the leaders desire; but many politicians fear that Turner cannot be counted as a 'ring' man if the 'ring' gets into a tight place." (Easton Democrat, 2 July 1887, p. 2.)

Return to J. Frank Turner's Introductory Page


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