Manuscript autobiography of Abel Turner, (1811-1866), a Free Will Baptist Minister, from Foxcroft, Maine, covering his life from 1811 until the year 1839. Included in the biography are accounts of his conversion to the Free Will Baptist doctrine, as well as his travels in Maine, Vermont and to Western New York State.

The reverse side of the title page states:

"When I commenced writing I had not the least idea of any one ever seeing it except my Mother or some near friends. Since I were married I often resolved to burn what I had written but for the sake of my wife have consented to write it over for her, and if any compitent [sic] judges should think it worth publishing for the F. W. Baptist it may be, after my dicease [sic]. Freedom 28 Dec. 1839 - A. Turner."

We have been unable to determine that any writings by Abel Turner, including either the present manuscript, sermons or other theological writings were ever published. (OCLC: 0)

The Rev. Abel Turner was the son of Adam Turner (b. 1743) and Daphny Bradman (b. 1741-d. 1811). Turner's autobiography states that his father was born at Pembroke, Massachusetts, and descended from John Turner, who came over with the Pilgrims. Of Turner's eight siblings, only Betsey and our writer, Abel Turner, came to Foxcroft, Maine, from their original hometown of Hebron, Maine. Foxcroft is today's Dover-Foxcroft, about 35 miles northwest of Bangor.

In 1814, Abel Turner's father is supposed to have come to Foxcroft with his family to a small log cabin on lot #16 in the 4th range. Foxcroft had only been settled in 1806, thus the Turners were early pioneers in this then sparsely populated area of Maine. Soon after their arrival to Foxcroft, Turner's third son Adam B. Turner was born and late in 1818 his fourth daughter Betty B. Turner was born.        

Abel Turner, was a very bright young man and is said to have been ordained in the ministry at the age of twenty-one years, or about they year 1832.  The first 29 pages of the present manuscript are not dated, with Turner only starting to date his autobiography on March 14th, 1832, when he was 21 years old and beginning his ministry. The early years of his ministry were spent preaching in the area of Piscataquis and Penobscot Counties, in Maine. He spent time in the Moosehead Lake region in the west central area of the state, traveling from settlement to settlement trying to "convert sinners" and in some cases forced to travel on old logging roads, as there were no roads to get to the settlements.  

Turner notes early in the manuscript the following description of an Indian settlement in Maine:

"As we passed up the river we saw a few log huts where resided a few poor Indians, the aborigines of our country. Poor Indian! We passed their burying grounds where they had just buried on of their numbers. As I passed this place I could but reflect upon the unhappy condition. They had got to leave their lands and ashes of their fathers in about three years! O unhappy race! How mournfully must these poor people leave the hills and vales, streams and woods of their nativity. How will the memory of these scenes linger upon their thoughts as they take the last look of there pleasant homes to journey to the far West."

 Turner states that early in life (at age 4-5) he had become interested in the hereafter and was visited by dreams of life after death. Raised a rigid Calvinist, Turner soon began exploring Universalism after hearing a preacher. When he was about 18 years old (c1819) the hold that Universalism had on him began slipping. In Turner's own words we find that:

"When I was about eighteen there was an extensive revival of religion in Guilford and many with whom I had formerly been acquainted turned to the Lord."

Turner soon began attending the Baptist revival meetings and in short time decided he would not be a Calvinist nor Universalist, but a Free Will Baptists. At about page 30 of the present journal Turner is 21 years old and the rest of the work deals with period of his conversion, ministry until aged 28.

At one point Turner travels from Bangor, Maine to New York where he visits his brother:

"My brother has been sick with the colory during its ravages in that city in 1831. While confined to his room he said he counted thirty coffins carried by his house to the silent home of the dead! Such were the ravages of death in that city."

After spending a week in New York Turner heads to Dearfield, New York, near Utica, where he thought a Free Will Baptist Church was located. He traveled to Albany by the steamboat DeWit Clinton, then by railroad to "Schenectada," and from there "by the Canell [sic] to Utica." He further describes his trip by cana

"The most of the way was rather unpleasant especially on the canell [sic]. This is the wickedest place that I ever saw; especially for swearing. There is nothing so strange in this since there is some thousand groceris [sic] and taverns on this canell [sic]! If parents want their boys to learn all manner of wickedness let them send them on the canell [sic]!

Upon arriving in Utica, Turner mentions:

"We arrived in Utica a few days after the Anti Slavery Convention had been broken up by a mob. It appears that some in the city were opposed to there meeting in the place; and excited the Irishmen who were to work on the railroads just above there to come to their aid; with clubs, stones, brickbats, etc. and thus hundreds of the best men in the State were pisically [sic] driven from the city; for the crime of meeting to discuss and adopt the best means of liberarting millions of American Sitisans [sic] from the worst state of slavery. !! O Liberty how art thou fallen! Spirit of Seventy six Where hast thou flu! lord save our country from the scourge that we have so justly merited."

Turner after discovering that the Free Will Baptist Church that he thought was near Utica was not in existence, he then went on to Rochester and Parma, New York, by canal. Turner spent the winter and spring of 1835-36 in this area of Monroe and Orleans Counties, preaching to "the sinners and backsliders", as well as attending conferences, before heading back to New York City for a final visit with his brother before heading back to Maine. While in New York he writes a rather harsh criticism of the place:

"Of this city I can say if any man has the ordinary feelings of humanity his heart will be touched. Here are the most distressing scenes of poverty, misery and profanity! Thousands crowding their way to ruin through the chanels [sic] of intemperance [sic] and debauchery!

After returning to Foxcroft and preaching in that area for a while, Turner in the fall of 1837 takes his family and heads west. He goes back to Western New York, to various towns in Genesee, Orleans, and Monroe Counties, places he had been previously. He spends several months in this area of New York State, and in mid December takes an appointment at Poultney, Vermont, but the leading men in the church decide they could not support him, not giving a reason. With his belongings still back at Byron, New York, Turner did not know where next to turn and finally takes an appointment with the Yates Q. M. Home Mission Society, (presumably Yates County, NY) and travels in the Q.M. until the May term, after which he decides to go to Southern Ohio. He travels and preaches at various towns along the way, but the manuscript ends before he leaves New York State.

The last fifty pages of the manuscript are a separate chapter dealing with his appointment at the Freedom and Farmersville Church, presumably in Cattaraugus County, New York. On Page 139, Turner states:

"For great clearness I have kept the account of the reformation in the Freedom and Farmersville church separate from my other appointments until now. The following is designed for to give a more particular account."

After this statement, the last fifty pages deal with his appointment to this church.

Turner lived out the rest of his life in Maine as a Free Will Baptist preacher in Chester, Penobscot County, Maine.