He first married Mary Vandevender, who was born in Virginia in 1834 and her death occurred in 1851, leaving three children, David E.. Margaret and Sarah.

In 1852, while a resident of Logan County, Illinois, he married Evaline (Humphreys) Hilton, who was born May 10, 1824, in eastern Tennessee.

[4] Turner grew up and received her common school training in her home community, where she also assisted in household duties until 1873.

In 1880, in their last year's classes, the school building where they were studying, in Mitchellville, Iowa, was sold for a State industrial institution, and they had to relinquish their goals.

There, in addition to their school work, the husband and wife held the positions of steward and matron of the hospital for one year.

Both having graduated with medical degrees, they went to Colfax, Iowa in 1884, where they enjoyed a large and lucrative practice, with the exception of two years, from 1898 to 1900, inclusive, spent in Chicago.

[4] Besides their general practice, they established an infirmary for the cure of inebriety,[3] the Turner Rest Home and Sanitarium.

Interested in all that pertains to society and state, she maintained a regular clipping bureau and especially in connection with the life and history of Colfax and vicinity.

[6] Turner read a paper on “Physical Culture,” before the teachers' institute, February 21, 1885; “Hygiene of Bathing,” Chautauqua assembly, June 24, 1890; “Climacteric Period,” “Epileptic Mania,” “The Tongue in Health and Disease,” and “Mineral Acids,” before the Jasper County Medical Society, 1887–89.