It led visitors, settlers, and cowboys in the 1860s to a running spring on an expansive prairie of lush rangeland that was home to numerous buffalo, deer, turkeys, horses, and longhorn cattle.

Cal Turner, who settled there to shoe horses and repair wagons, gave his name to the village that gradually grew around the spring where all travelers camped.

One hundred sixty-two people lived there in 1916, along with Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Disciples of Christ churches and about ten businesses, including the Advance newspaper.

A functioning cemetery society still existed in Turnersville at the time, and it organized an annual homecoming on the fourth Sunday in May.

A grain elevator, a community center, and a seed and fertilizer company were also present in the town at that time.