The Turner Family Papers consist of several generations of family letters, diaries, scrapbooks, miscellaneous printed material, school and college memorabilia, genealogy, and photographs from the Weston, Vermont, home of Mabel Ramsey Turner (1881-1987) and her husband, Milo A. Turner (1878-1947). The collection includes the sermons and notebooks of the latter, a Methodist minister, who served in a number of Vermont churches between 1902 and 1947. Although there are a few nineteenth century Ramsey family letters in the papers, the focus of the collection is the correspondence of Mabel Ramsey Turner with her family between 1901 and 1987. Her correspondence with her parents began when she was a student at Montpelier Seminary between 1901 and 1902. In almost weekly letters to her parents after her marriage in 1905 that she titled "Tales from the Parsonage," she described her married life in a succession of small Vermont towns. Although she worried about family finances, and she had obligations as a minister's wife as well as increasing family responsibilities, Mabel's letters are cheerful as she describes a myriad of domestic details. Mabel Turner's letters to her daughter Miriam were written for the most part when Miriam was a student at Middlebury College between 1926 and 1931. In her frequent affectionate letters, she wrote of local news and supports her daughter's academic and social accomplishments. Money, or lack thereof, is spoken of frankly. As a minister's wife, Mabel Turner was called on to organize church programs for both adults and children. She accumulated a voluminous collection of games and stunts, poetry, recitations, one-act plays, monologues, songs, stories, and readings. She was an adept seamstress who regularly sewed or remade dresses for her daughter, and the many patterns she used for other handcrafts are included in the collection as well. Miriam Turner Larson's letters to her parents began when she was a freshman at Middlebury College in 1926 and continue until 1980. Miriam's letters and her Middlebury memorabilia provide a glimpse of social and academic life for the period 1926 to 1931. Miriam Turner Larson saved two series of letters she received from non-family members. She lived with the W.S. Hibbards in Barton while she finished high school after her parents moved to Swanton. The Hibbards not only helped Miriam financially to attend Middlebury College but also supported her academic achievements in letters written during her college years. Miriam had a short-lived youthful romance with Milton E. Lewis in the summer of 1926 during which he wrote to her with astonishing frequency. In contrast to his sister Miriam, Wesley Turner did not enjoy early academic or professional success. He was plagued by financial difficulties and in his early letters to his parents he asks for money and describes bad luck finding a job. He later found stability in his marriage, steady employment and his association with Jehovah's Witnesses. The earliest photographs in the collection include nineteenth century portraits of the Ramsey, Bixby, Fifield and Turner families; Gageville, Vermont primary school classes (ca. 1890); Montpelier Seminary classes 1901-1903; and Gage Basket Factory workers where Ernest and Albert Ramsey were employed in 1887-1888. There are a number of photographs of Milo Turner at different stages of his life as well as many of his children and grandchildren. As an amateur photographer, Milo took pictures not only of his family but also of the parsonages and the churches in which he served. The subjects of his collection of film and glass plate negatives are largely unidentified.
