Jonathan Baldwin Turner

Jonathan Baldwin Turner (December 7, 1805 - January 10, 1899) Classical scholar, botanist, dedicated Christian and political activist, Jonathan Baldwin Turner was perhaps the leading voice in the social movement of the 1850's that produced the land grant universities that pioneered public higher education in the United States. Turner was especially involved in establishing the Univeristy of Illinois.

Turner was a star student of Classical literature at Yale University, and aspiring missionary, who upon graduating in 1833 set out to the wilds of Illinois. In 1833, Turner became a professor at the newly organized Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois. Here Turner encountered Pottawatomie Indians, and witnessed terrible outbreaks of Cholera. Most importantly, Turner soon found himself involved in the question of slavery, as he became the editor of a Jacksonville abolitionist paper, an assistant with the underground railroad, and a vocal opponent of slavery in the classroom.

The conservative town of Jacksonville soon forced the abolitionist Turner from his teaching post, cahring him with an inappropriate politicizing of the classroom.

Turner left town and soon began to lead the "Illinois Industrial League" and to advocate for a system of public "industrial" education, suited for the needs of the working ("industrial") classes, and publically funded.

Turner faced stiff opposition from traditional colleges, and those opposed to non-sectarian education; in 1853 his farm was burned to the ground. But Turner (who was deeply religious although not orthodox) pressed hard, and generated considerable enthusiasm for his model of education. In 1862, the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act was passed, which would eventually (after the American Civil War) bring Turner's ideas to fruition in the public Land Grant Universities of the United States.

The precise importance of Turner's contribution to the establishment of the Land Grant university is not above dispute; Senator Justin Morrill, was reluctant to credit Turner as the singular author of the movement, and some have argued that Morrill's contribution, as sponsoring senator, was more important. In fact, both the rabble-rousing populism of Turner and the more reserved statemanship of the Senator Morrill were necessary for the passage of the act that bears Turner's name. Yet Turner's consistant dedication to this movement--beginning the early 1830's, were surely crucial to its ultimate success.

Turner was displeased with the politcal process that saw the University of Illinois (or "Illinois Industrial University," as it was originally named) located in Urbana, Illinois, far from the industrial masses of Chicago.

While he spoke at the laying of the University's cornerstone, (and his words: "Industrial Education Prepares the way for the Millennium of Labor" remain in stone above the University's main quadrangle), Turner in his later years devoted his energy to other causes (and there were many). He became a strident opponent of corporations, and an advocate of the rights of the mentally ill, who suffered under terrible condition of nineteenth-century asylums. He also wrote religious tracts championing the teachings of Christ, critical of Catholicism, Mormonism, and orthodox religion generally.

Turner--abolitionist, educationalist, and social reformer--died at the age of 93.

--ThaddeusFrye 07:56, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)