Lizabeth A. Turner

Lizabeth A. Turner (February 1, 1829 – April 27, 1907) was an American charitable organization leader who served as twelfth National President of the Woman's Relief Corps (WRC).

She served continuously in some official capacity — as chair of large committees for fairs, Memorial Day and other special work, as a member of the Board of Directors, and as one of the Vice-Presidents.

Abraham Lincoln Corps of Charlestown, of which she was a member, placed her picture in Department headquarters, Boylston Building, Boston.

She was deeply interested in all the posts of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), and had many friends among the comrades throughout the United States, for they appreciated her work in their behalf.

[1] At the start of the Civil War, Turner packed the first box of supplies forwarded from that city to the soldiers at the front, and in 1863, she was a constant visitor to the hospital in Pemberton Square, where the wounded sent from the battlefields of the South received care.

[4] She became a member of the WRC on March 17, 1880, and was initiated by E. Florence Barker, who was then President of Gen. H. G. Berry Corps of Malden, Massachusetts.

[4] The movement in behalf of a Soldiers' Home in Chelsea, Massachusetts enlisted her sympathies, and she was one of the leaders in the bazaar held for that object in Mechanics' Building, Boston, in December, 1881.

One of the attractions of the bazaar was a military album, containing autographs of President Abraham Lincoln and the original war Cabinet, besides the signatures of prominent generals and other leaders in the civil conflict and in the Revolution.

[4] At the Massachusetts Department Convention in 1888, she was elected Conductor and in June of the same year, was chosen a delegate to Denver, where it was proposed to form a National Woman's Relief Corps.

In the address which she presented to the annual convention at Saint Paul, Minnesota, over which she presided in 1896, referring to patriotic teaching, she said: "This is one of the fundamental laws of our order.

She made an extended Southern tour during her year as National President, visiting the African American corps, and also going to Andersonville, in order to find out something definite about the place and its surroundings.

It being decided at this convention to assume control of the Andersonville Prison property, a board of directors was chosen, of which Turner was elected chairman.

We have built a nine-room house, at a cost of over US$1,700, and put up a wire fence with gates, at a cost of US$567; planted the prison pen with Bermuda grass roots at an expense of US$117; paid out in small sums, for extra help, tools, and sundries, about US$500 more; also paid salary of care-taker for seven months, and built two bridges."

After referring to the presentation of a flagpole worth US$140 by Colony Corps and Comrades of Fitzgerald, Georgia, the gift of a flag from the Ex-prisoners of War Association of Connecticut, the furnishing in oak of the guest chamber at the cottage by members of corps in Massachusetts, and a donation of US$100 raised through the efforts of Emma R. Wallace, of Illinois, a member of the board, Turner stated that not one cent had been taken from the national treasury for all the work accomplished at Andersonville.

In her report at the convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in September, 1901, she said:— "Within the last two years over two hundred pecan trees have been set out, and they are growing finely.

The pecan industry of Georgia will be a close rival to the orange trade of Florida and, I believe, with better results, as we have no fear of frosts.

Ohio and Massachusetts will this fall put up handsome monuments of granite inside the stockade grounds, in honor of their loyal sons who died as prisoners of war.

"[6] In 1901, Turner retired from her business in Boston and removed to New Britain, Connecticut, to make her home with her niece, Mrs. George M.