Turner, Abel.

Born in Pembroke, Massachusetts, on March 14, 1811, one of eight children born to Adam and Daphny (of Daffy) Bradman Turner, Abel Turner moved with his family to Foxcroft, Maine, in 1814, a new settlement in the far northeast of the state. Turner's father is supposed to have settled in a small log cabin on lot #16 in the 4th range, and soon after their arrival, Adam's third son Adam B. Turner was born followed in 1818 by his fourth daughter Betty B. Turner.

Precocious and stirred by the spirit, Turner was visited by dreams of life after death early in life and though raised a strict Calvinist, he began exploring Universalism after hearing a preacher. At eighteen, however, he attended a revival in Guilford, about thirty miles southwest of Foxcroft, where he wrote, "many with whom I had formerly been acquainted turned to the Lord." Through these revival meetings, Turner soon joined the Free Will Baptists, beginning his own ministry by the age of 21. During the early years of his ministry, Turner traveled throughout central Maine, from Moosehead Lake through Piscataquis and Penobscot Counties, trying to "convert sinners" in isolated settlements and logging camps, and at one point, passing an Indian village:

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