James Munroe Turner was born Apr. 23, 1850 in Lansing, Mich. At sixteen years of age he was a clerk in the land office of the Jackson, Lansing & Saginaw Railroad with his father had built. Turner opened a land office in Lansing in partnership with Dwight Smith. He later became president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, which was sold to Grand Truck Railroad in 1879. In 1876, Turner was elected to the Michigan State Legislature. He was a state elector in 1888, and was mayor of Lansing in 1889 and 1895. Turner was nominated for governor of Michigan in 1890 on the G.O.P. ticket. He and Pamela Waterman Tappey married, and they had a son, James, who became a lawyer and lived in Grosse Pointe.
From the description of James Munro Turner papers, 1804-1909. (Detroit Public Library). WorldCat record id: 299512317
