Author's Note: Henry Gray Turner was a first cousin of my great-great grandfather, Lysander Turner.
Henry Gray Turner, a brother of Vines Edmunds Turner
and a first cousin of Lysander Turner, was born March 20, 1839. Enrolled as a freshman at the University of
North Carolina in June, 1857, he was prevented from joining his class due to
illness. As a result, he entered the
University of Virginia at Charlottesville but was unable to complete his
education due to financial distress brought upon his family by the death of his
father in December, 1857. Thus, Henry went to Alabama and accepted temporary
employment as a schoolteacher, prior to becoming Principal of the Piscola
Academy in Brooks County, Georgia in 1859.
