Dr. JOHN TURNER HORNER was born 22 Sep 1829 in Perry County, Tennessee, and died from a fall on 25 Oct 1911, at the age of 85, in Cassville, Barry County, Missouri.

As the story goes John wanted to marry a poor girl but his father, Spencer, wanted him to marry a girl with more wealth, Susannah Boen. On one occasion, John had stopped to visit with Susannah Boen. Spencer happened by and took John's horse, insuring a lengthy visit with Susannah. He married (1) SUSANNAH "SUSAN" BOEN 1846 in Johnson County, Arkansas. She was born 09 Mar 1829 in Perry County, Tennessee, and died 10 Apr 1913 in Cato, Barry County, Missouri, the daughter of Lewis Boen and Mary Hodge of Oark, Johnson County, Arkansas. Their marriage was not a happy one. One day, and six children later, he came home and she hit him over the head with a broomstick. He left and never came back. It was during these early years of marriage that John was away a lot of the time in his medical training. He received primary and secondary education in Arkansas and taught school. When he was 21 he began his studies in medicine. His preceptor was Dr. Forley of Clarksville, Arkansas. He moved to Webster County, Missouri with his parents but they returned to Johnson County by 1860. In 1860 he entered the medical college in New Orleans for two years.

John's service during the Civil War is in question. It has been stated that he was conscripted into the Confederate Army. This is not the case. Since the Revolutionary War all able bodied men were required to serve in their local militia, providing their own transportation, supplies and weapons. Company I of the 10th Arkansas Militia mustered at Clarksville, Arkansas, from February 22 to March 19, 1862, with 41 men, including John and his brothers, were present. Captain Christopher C. Casey was in command during this muster. John was mustered as a First Lieutenant; brother William was a First Sergeant. This unit, as with most militia units, never saw action. When Arkansas seceded from the union the Governor turned over his militia units to the CSA. The newly formed Confederate Army could not absorb the militia structure so the militia units simply disbanded, their members moving on to enlist in regular Confederate or Union units. John was never conscripted and never served in or deserted the CSA Army. There was no stigma in the Union Army about previously serving in the militia, they all did. In fact, the Union Army regularly recruited from CSA ranks throughout the war. It has also been stated the John formed Company K of the 2nd Arkansas Union Infantry. This is highly unlikely as there is no record of John's service in the Union Army (the basis for the rejection of his 1893 Union pension application).

Even though the town of Clarksville was occupied by Union troops during most of the Civil War, these troops were far from Union supply lines and could not maintain civil order in the county. After the death of his father, three brothers and two sisters in the Civil War John organized a refugee wagon train. The surviving Horner and other local families left Johnson County and settled in Webster County, Missouri to escape the bushwhackers.

He married (2) MARY GILLIAM, the daughter of Dow and Celia Gillian, about 1865 in Webster County, Missouri. She had previously married FRANCIS MARION DUNLAP before 1865. It is believed that he died in the Civil War leaving her to care for two small children. She was born 20 December 1844 in Arkansas and died 9 December 1929 in Cassville, Barry County, Missouri. John and Mary met on the wagon train from Johnson County, Arkansas to Webster County, Missouri in 1864. They remained in Webster County for several years before John set up a allopath medical practice in Cassville, Barry County, Missouri in 1866. He was licensed to practice in Missouri in 1884. She and John are buried in Cassville Cemetery, Cassville, Barry County, Missouri.

A family history was told in 1942 by Professor John Turner Horner, to Eva Horner, his daughter, about Dr. John Turner Horner of Cassville, Missouri.
"His dad (Spencer Horner) was a slave owner, but he was a Union man. When war came up all his boys joined the Union Army except Dad (Dr. John Turner Horner). The Confederates conscripted him, so he was on one side, and his three brothers were on the other side. His (Dr. John Turner Horner) younger brother was Will. He (John Turner Horner) managed to get away, slipped out on them and joined the Union Army. His oldest boy, Louis, was 15; he was afraid Louis would be conscripted too, so he took Louis with him. He recruited one whole company in the federal army, Company K. Bill Mullen, Cassville, was one of the men he recruited. His son Louis got a pension. Now then the lines were drawn. Most of Arkansas was rebel. Dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) and his brother got a furlough to go home to visit their folks. He would dodge around through the mountains to go to the house at night, etc. Dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) said his horse needed shoeing and he had to go out on the mountain 5 miles to get it shod. He told his brother, Will, and his father Spencer Horner that whatever they did, never go to the house in the daytime. But the mother (Permelia Turner Horner) was killing a chicken so the father Spencer Horner and Will went to the house. Wasn't long till about 20 rebels came riding up. Grandfather (Spencer Horner) went out into the potato patch and said, 'I surrender!' and they shot him down. Will ran through the lot and up on the mountain side and was shot in the head. He lived several days in a cave.
Dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) had a squad of men, including Wash Middleton and Fate Arnold, desperate men, to go back into the hills and clean out that bunch. They killed 17 out of the 20 bushwhackers.
Dr. John Turner Horner knew that after he was conscripted and deserted the Rebel Army, if he ever became a prisoner, they'd shoot him. That's why he never got on the Union Army record. He was either afraid, or too careless to get an honorable discharge. Dad's (Dr. John Turner Horner) squad was equal in number to the other squads. One day they met in a corn field and each man picked out his man. Dad picked out the leader; couldn't shoot him, threw his pistol at him. They caught one man walking between his wife and his mother. Wash Middleton shot him down. One night they surrounded a house where the bushwhackers were having a dance. Wash Middleton took the man who killed grandfather (Spencer Horner) by the hair and dragged him out, 'Now you'll kill a helpless old man' and killed him. Fate Arnold didn't know what fear was. 'I (Prof. John Turner Horner) heard so much about him that I expected to see a wonderful man. When I got a certificate in Stone County, his son-in-law was a County School Commissioner, and I told him I wanted to see Fate Arnold.' He was a little wizened old man.
Father (Dr. John Turner Horner) helped to take a refugee train of Union people out of Clarksville, Arkansas, to Marshfield, Webster County, Missouri. That was where dad met mother (Mary Gillian Dunlap) and her two girls, in that refugee train. Fate Arnold would volunteer to go through 20 miles of Rebel lines to get ammunition, and he'd always come back. Once he jerked his horse's head up, and the horse got shot in the head. Arnold got wounded. He stayed with my father (Dr. John Turner Horner) in Marshfield, Missouri until he got well. Mother (Mary Gillian Dunlap) said there'd be a pool of blood under his chair. In Marshfield the folks were suspicious of the Union soldiers who came up from Arkansas. Fate Arnold and dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) passed a saloon one day and heard some man say, he didn't believe there ever was a Union soldier who came up from Arkansas. Fate Arnold says, 'Did you hear that?' 'Yes, but there's just two of us. We'd better let it pass.' 'No, I'll not.' They went back, ordered drinks, dared the man to repeat it, and they let it pass. Dad's name was always on the list of GAR at the Cassville Reunion.
Grandfather, Spencer Horner, had a pot of gold and silver and paper money, but they never did find it after he was killed. Louis had a dream about 'a black gum tree in the middle of a field - put my back to the tree, took ten steps toward the house, dug down, and found the pot of gold.' Dad's, (Dr. John Turner Horner) brothers and sisters were Will, and two who died in the Union Army, Sarah and Jim Vaught Eva Horner saw Sarah near Oark. Arkansas one time, Zilphie and Bob Mooney. Bob Mooney, after his wife died, went to live with one of his girls, and said she objected to his spitting in the fire. He say's 'I went and found me a woman and now I've got a place to spit.' Dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) said Jess Wilson was a brave man too. One time they left Jess Wilson to hold their horses when they went to fight. Jess was another little measley, looked like he wouldn't fight a chicken.
Dad's (Dr. John Turner Horner) first wife was a Bowen. She was quarrelsome. His father (Spencer Horner) forced him to marry this girl because she had money. He wanted to marry a poor girl. He stopped one day to talk to her, hung his reins off the post, and dad (Dr. John Turner Horner) had to walk to church. He and his first wife had a quarrel. She hit him with a broom stick. He left and never went back.
Dad's (Dr. John Turner Horner) first family, Louis, Spence, Bud, Bell Wilson, and Mary Wilson, Spence, and I (Prof. John Turner Horner) always got along. We could work together. He'd let me take the lead. Louis and I had 80 acres of land together. We dug a well, Spence and I. Every day he'd say, 'Listen, I hear Water.' I got old Dempsey over to blast. Aunt Ollie Sears once told me, although I do not have the notes dated, that Dr. Horner and family lived at Rocky Comfort, Missouri one year when she was ten. She then lived in Cassville, Missouri till she was sixteen, when they moved to Pineville for one year. Then, of course, the family moved to White Rock, and she said that grandpa lived in the drug store at White Rock. She also said it was 'Bitters' which grandpa had laid up for the Christmas trade. Prof. John Turner Horner took the bottles out in a field. The family lived in White Rock a long time. Zoe, Nell, and Ollie were married there Aunt Mattie (Shelly Fritz's GGM ran off to get married in Seligman, Missouri, according to Aunt Ollie). When Grandpa and Grandma moved back to Cassville, from White Rock, they did not move away from Cassville again. She said the family was poisoned on head cheese, when grandpa was in the drugstore. Now as to Jessie Horner, and the way she rocked her babies, 'when we lived up the holler, the Sears could hear that cheer just a poppin of a night.' 'Bud Horner died here in Oklahoma 80 years old, a year or two ago,' said Aunt Ollie.
I saw Bess and Byrd Matterson at their home in Cassville 10-18-65, and got some corrections on my own memories. I have known for a long, long time that my memory is not trustworthy. Bess said that our grandparents never lived in the house where Aunt Zora died, where Pete and Virginia lived once, and where Richard O'Brien lives now. Just east of this house of Richard's is a stucco house, which is the former location of our grandparents' barn. East of the stucco house is another house which is the former home of Old Doe Horner. Aunt Zora lived there; it was her girlhood home. Aunt Mattie Melton lived on east almost to the end of the street. She lived on the south side of the street, opposite Tom Yeargain's house, which is still there. The Horner home had three or four rooms then, and is of course larger now. There used to be silver poplar trees planted by grandfather Horner. This house was the first home of Bess and Byrd, if I understood them correctly. Aunt Zora had a church wedding, and her brother, Prof. John Turner Horner, performed the ceremony. Aunt Mattie made Zora's beautiful dress of some shiny material. June Latshaw has a picture of Aunt Zora in this dress. The wedding was in the Baptist Church. 'Farmer Bill' was a partner in the drugstore with grandpa for quite a while. Bess had never heard of Jessie Horner ever having any connection with the drugstore at White Rock. Another of my memories gone. Aunt Mattie Melton not only had Jump [John?] (Shelly Fritz's grandfather) and Leo, but also Clyde, Lawrence, and Mabel; about all of her children were born before they left for Texas. A whole lot of other folks went to Texas about that time also. As to that house where Richard O'Brien lives now, it was for many years the family home of Uncle Jake Sears, Matt Sears' daddy. Now here comes a very interesting angle or two on White Rock. The sulphur well was in the early days a spring, a bubbling spring, with lots of big flat rocks around it. In the very early days, long before Old Doc Horner, there were big elm trees near it, and local men had platforms in the trees, in order to shoot the deer which came there to drink, making a neat supply of meat for the winter. In our grandfather's time it was still a spring, and people with stomach trouble came to camp near it for the sake of the sulphur water, and grandpa practiced medicine with these people who came to the place as a King of The Health Resort. It was a period when medicinal waters were much more popular than now. Bess, [Grandma Young - Aunt Allie Young], at that time, and the stomach patients consulted Grandpa Horner. Bess said when the family lived at Pineville a short time, Aunt Zora made many life-time friends, although she was only 12 or 13. White Rock and Pineville are only 5 miles apart. She got acquainted with Pearl Baber, Fred Baber, Daisy Farmer, and the Moffatt bunch, etc. Will Horner, was also a doctor, I believe, and a cousin of our grandfather; must have lived at White Rock for a while. He was the father of Will and Maude Horner who came to the Horner Institute at Rocky Comfort, Missouri. His daughter Sarah, older than Maud, married Milo Coffee of White Rock, Missouri, they had two sons, Hugh and _____ They were divorced, and he raised the boys. Later he married Marianna Lewis, a school teacher. The younger Will Horner and Maud, and their cousin, Jasper Cowan, were all from Spadra, [Johnson County] Arkansas, at the time they came to school at Rocky Comfort, I believe. I am trying to get in touch with a granddaughter of Maud Horner who died in California about a year or two ago. I had one brief letter from Maude before her death. Her granddaughter was working on genealogy of that branch of the family. At a Lions Club meeting 10-24-1921 in Tulsa, when the Superintendent E. E. Oberholtzer was in charge of the program, Prof. John Turner Horner was "Chief Lion," and there was a brief printed account of his life. He said then he was born about six miles south of Marshfield, Webster County, Missouri, July 26, 1866. His parents removed to Barry County, Missouri, when he was six weeks old, where he resided till he reached his majority. This was more than I had ever known about his place of birth. "
Signed: Eva Horner

Children of MARY GILLIAM and MARION DUNLAP are:
1. MANY DUNLAP.
2. VINEY DUNLAP; died at age 14.

Children of JOHN HORNER and SUSANNAH BOEN are:
1. LEWIS CASS HORNER, b. 22 September 1848, Clarksville, Johnson County, Arkansas; d. 31 March 1923, Tamaha, Oklahoma; m. JEMIMA KASIAH MELSON.
2. MARY ELLENDER HORNER, b. 10 May 1850, Johnson County, Arkansas; d. 6 April1936, Cato, Barry County, Missouri; m. WILLIAM JESSE WILSON, 5 July 1866.
3. SPENCER P. HORNER, b. 20 September 1852, Johnson County, Arkansas; d. 22 May 1923, Hope, Stephens County, Arkansas.
4. MARTHA ISABELL HORNER, b. 15 June 1856, Johnson County, Arkansas; d. 15 February 1922, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska.
5. RUSSELL CARTER HORNER, b. 20 October 1858, Johnson County, Arkansas; d. 15 September 1942, Hatch, Dona Ana County, New Mexico; m. CORA ELLEN SHAFTER, 25 December 1879, Barry County, Missouri.

Children of JOHN HORNER and MARY GILLIAN are:
7. JOHN TURNER HORNER, b. 26 July 1866, Webster County, Missouri; d. 15 September 1942, Neosha, Newton County, Missouri; m. 1) MARTHA ELLEN JESSE; b. 19 March 1868; d. 2 August 1927, Neosha, Newton County, Missouri. Married 2) LUCILLE BRAZILE.
8. ZILPHA HORNER, b. 1869.
9. MARTHA CHRISTINA HORNER, b. 21 May 1871.
10. OLLIE ELIZABETH HORNER, b. 23 May 1873, Cassville, Barry County, Missouri; d. 1946.
11. WILLIAM ALBERT HORNER, b. 11 January 1874, Barry County, Missouri, d. 29 February 1936, Decatur, Wise County, Texas; m. Minnie Abigail Young.
12. ZORA CATHERINE HORNER, b. 28 May 1876, Cassville, Barry County, Missouri, d. 8 June 1944, Jane, McDonald County, Missouri; m. Willie Carlisle Russell.
13. NELLIE MAY HORNER, b. 17 August 1879, d. 9 February 1965, Wheaton, Barry County, Missouri, m. Porter Samuel 'Port' Potts, 1 November 1894; b. 1876, d. 15 March 1962. Porter was a blacksmith in Rocky Comfort for many years. Both are buried in Rocky Comfort Cemetery; McDonald County, Missouri.

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