William F. Turner (1816 – December 23, 1899) was the first Chief Justice of the Territory of Arizona, serving in that capacity for about seven years. Born in Pennsylvania, he attended college in Ohio and practiced law there after graduation. When the Arizona Territory was created, he sought to be appointed its first governor but was instead made Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court of Arizona. Renominated to a second four-year term, he was later removed under a cloud of scandal and political opposition while having an unblemished legal record. Turner then formed a successful law practice in Kansas, but his final years were impoverished.
Early life Turner was born to Ann (Smith) and Dr. James P. Turner in Milton, Pennsylvania in 1816. His father was Federal Lands Commissioner for Louisiana and Mississippi during the John Quincy Adams administration. The family was based in Bayou Sara, Louisiana at this time. Dr. Turner's service ended during the Andrew Jackson administration and he moved his family first to Mount Vernon, Ohio and later to Cincinnati. The younger Turner was admitted to Kenyon College, located about from Mount Vernon, in 1838. As a student, he and future US President Rutherford B. Hayes were both members of the Philomathean Society. He graduated on August 9, 1842. During a speech he gave at his graduation, he expressed scorn for those who taught themselves the law instead of attending college. In the speech, Turner proclaimed "A man cannot hammer a lapstone and Blackstone at the same time".
Following graduation, Turner was admitted to the Ohio bar and practiced for several years in Mount Vernon. He married Harriet Miller of Mount Vernon sometime before they moved to Keokuk, Iowa, around 1854. There is no record that the couple had any children. The couple were financially prosperous, with the 1860 U.S. census showing them with over $20,000 in assets (about $ in present-day terms).
Arizona appointment
Initially a Whig, Turner joined the Republican Party following the collapse of the Whigs. He began seeking appointment to a government position in 1863. After failing to secure a position as assistant solicitor of the United States Court of Claims, Turner investigated possible diplomatic postings but no consulships were vacant at the time.
By then, President Abraham Lincoln had already appointed John A. Gurley to be Arizona Territory governor, with John N. Goodwin as Chief Justice and William T. Howell and Joseph P. Allyn as Associate Justices on March 6, 1863. However, Gurley and Goodwin never held those offices, as Gurley died suddenly of appendicitis the night before he was to have left for Arizona in August of that year.
Following Gurley's death, Turner wrote Lincoln on August 21, 1863 seeking appointment as Governor. His letter contained the message, "There appears to be no vacancy in consulships. Is there any reason why I cannot receive the appointment of Governor of Arizona... My friends think I was very badly treated in the matter of the Assistant Solicitorship of the Court of Claims, and the appointment to the above place would be very gratifying to themselves as well as myself." Lincoln instead advanced Goodwin to Governor of Arizona Territory, and nominated Turner for Chief Justice of Arizona Territory on August 22, 1863. Turner and Goodwin were both appointed on an interim basis until the Senate returned from recess in January 1864 to confirm them.
The sequence of events made Turner the last of the new territory's three initial federal judges to receive his appointment, and the second appointed as Chief Justice. Charles Poston, who had lobbied both Lincoln and Congress for creation of an Arizona Territory and was later selected as superintendent of Indian affairs for the new territory, called him "Senator Grymes' man" and claimed he had been appointed due to the influence of his fellow Iowan Senator James W. Grimes.
Turner officially accepted his new position in a September 7 letter to U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates. By the time he was prepared to depart for Arizona, most territorial officials were already in transit from Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas by government wagon train. The Chief Justice nominee caught up with the Governor Goodwin's party at Fort Larned in southwestern Kansas. They traveled along the Santa Fe Trail and reached Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 14 where they were welcomed by New Mexico Territory Governor Henry Connelly. Turner took his oath of office with the other territorial officials traveling together on December 29, 1863, during a snow-storm shrouded ceremony held at Navajo Springs. The ceremony officially establishing the new territory was to take place once they reached the territory, but because of uncertainty over the exact location of the border the party continued on to Navajo Springs which they knew was within the territory. Governor Goodwin established three judicial districts in an April 9, 1864 proclamation at the temporary territory capital of Fort Whipple at its original tent and log-cabin location at Del Rio Springs. Turner was assigned to the third district, which encompassed all of the territory north of the Gila River and east of the 114th meridian. This district comprised Yavapai County, which at the time was or 57% of the territory. Court was held at the county seat in Prescott, Arizona.
Leave of absence The new Chief Justice requested a four-month leave of absence on March 28, 1864, for the purpose of moving his wife to the territory. His initial plans to go to Iowa were modified on April 9 when the citizens of Fort Whipple selected Turner to represent Arizona at the 1864 Republican National Convention in Baltimore beginning June 7. Although he was representing the entire territory, there was not enough time to wait for statewide ratification before leaving in time to ensure his arrival before the start of the convention. He left Fort Whipple with a military escort on April 11 and arrived at Fort Wingate on May 9 on his way to Santa Fe where he would catch the stagecoach. Due to mail delays, formal approval for the leave did not arrive until after his departure. Following the convention, which renominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency, Turner went from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. for several weeks where he lobbied for improved mail service for Arizona. In a June 17, 1864 letter, Turner reported to Territorial Secretary Richard C. McCormick that the necessary Congressional approval had been secured and that he would see the Postmaster General the next day to request expedited implementation of the approved legislation.
From Washington, Turner proceeded to New York City where he wrote a full column letter to the editor of The New York Tribune, printed on July 21, responding to a complaint from an anonymous person known only as "G." in Tucson claiming that Secretary McCormick had received a full year's salary prior to his arrival in Arizona, taking office, or doing any work of the secretary. Turner defended McCormick in his column and provided first hand information about the situation in the territory.
A proclamation by the governor on August 10, 1864 ordered proceedings to begin in Turner's district on the last Tuesday of September, months after the start in the other two districts owing to his prolonged absence from the Territory. Turner would not return by then.
Turner was back in Mount Vernon, Ohio when his leave expired. On October 12, 1864, he requested an extension to his leave until the first of the year which was granted by Attorney General Bates. Another extension request in January 1865, when he had returned to Washington, was denied. He had claimed that it was not possible to travel back to Arizona due to a lack of forage for the draft animals and difficulties with hostile Indians making travel too dangerous. He also argued, to no avail, that his absence in Arizona was being covered by Justice Allyn and that his assistance in Washington was required by territory delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives Charles D. Poston to aid in lobbying for the "interests of the territory". Despite lack of approval for the extension, Turner did not return to his duties until November 1865, twenty months after he left the territory.
During his absence, Associate Justice Allyn filled in for Turner during one judicial session while all other scheduled sessions were not held. It was originally expected that Judge Howell would hold court for Turner, but Howell too left Arizona, several months after Turner. Allyn was the only justice in the territory until Henry T. Backus arrived to replace Howell about the time Turner returned.
In September 1865, Governor Goodwin was elected the second territory delegate in Washington replacing Poston and, Secretary McCormick became acting governor. In his December 11, 1865 message to the 2nd Arizona Territorial Legislature, whose upper house members were ceremonially sworn in by Chief Justice Turner, McCormick noted that the Supreme Court would be "functioning normally" with all three justices present.
Judgeship Turner functioned as district judge over the third district, presiding over cases in both Territorial court, concerning matters of Arizona statutes, and federal court, concerning matters of the US Constitution and federal laws.
During his first district court session, the grand jurors came to court with their guns. Turner was apprehensive over the situation which was different from his experiences in eastern courts, but reluctantly swore them in. During session the next day, the jurors suddenly rushed out of the courtroom to attend to an Indian attack. After that, Turner brought his own firearms to court as well.
In December 1865, Turner instructed the jurors that prompt punishment of minor offenses, such as "violation of the public peace and tranquility, offenses against public morality and health, gambling, cheating, swindling, and fraud" would deter more serious crimes and stressed that under Arizona law, drunkenness "shall not be an excuse for any crime".
In addition to district judge, he presided as Chief Justice when three district justices met together as the Supreme Court to hear appeals from cases previously heard in district court, which occurred first in December 1865. The justice who presided over the original case was qualified to rehear the matter in the Supreme Court. The first Supreme court session selected a clerk, announced rules, and heard one case.
Between court sessions, Turner delivered political addresses in February and May 1866, although the topics are not known. Turner, a staunch Republican, was displeased with Governor McCormick, whose political allegiance had shifted from support for Lincoln to Johnson
In a letter to United States Secretary of the Interior James Harlan, Turner accused McCormick of appointing confederate sympathizers and copperheads to territorial offices instead of loyal union supporters. Although supporting McCormick's appointment to governor in 1865, by 1866 his position had changed. He felt McCormick was overly influenced by former Confederate King S. Woolsey. Turner also felt that McCormick unduly benefited from being the owner and controller of the Arizona Miner, published in the capital Prescott. Turner, a prohibitionist also disliked that McCormick offered whiskey to visitors to his office.
Turner's salary was $2,500 per year and he depended on outside business interests to supplement his income. Some of his business dealings resulted in personal litigation in his own court, where Justice Backus would preside in his place.