wfn.org | Black, white Turrentines trace heritage to N.C. farm

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 25, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.     10-31-71BP{425}

NOTE: A photograph is available for use with this story.

A UMNS Feature
By Alice Smith*

More than 250 years after brothers Samuel and Alexander Turrentine
immigrated to America from Ireland, black and white Turrentines gathered
this summer for a reunion at Rougemont, N.C., north of Durham. Some were
descendants of the two brothers who owned plantations in the area, and the
others descended from the slaves who toiled at them.

For blacks and whites, the event was intensely meaningful.

"It turned out to be a real good camaraderie," said Bill Turrentine, a
member of First United Church in Tucker, Ga., who is active in older adult
and communications ministries in the North Georgia Conference. "There's no
bitterness or rancor. If anything, there's more curiosity and lots and lots
of love. We just hug each other."

Bill's cousin, the Rev. Reese Turrentine, is a retired North Georgia pastor
living in Tucker. Their grandfather was the Rev. Samuel B. Turrentine, a
clergy member of the Western North Carolina Conference. They are descendants
of Alexander and pronounce the last syllable of Turrentine with a long "i,"
so that it sounds like valentine.

The Rev. James Turrentine, pastor of Douglasville First United Methodist
Church in North Georgia, is a descendant of Samuel. His side pronounces the
name differently, so that the last syllable sounds like "teen."

The white Turrentines scattered from the home place and moved west, but many
on the black side remained in North Carolina, adopting the Turrentine name
following emancipation.

Descendants of both sides are buried in the same cemetery, the whites on one
side and the blacks on the other. Plaques on twin brick pillars at the
cemetery read: "This is the family cemetery of Samuel and Alexander
Turrentine, brothers who came from Ireland in 1745" and "Every Turrentine in
American traces his ancestry to this farm."

The distinctiveness of the name has been helpful in locating Turrentines
scattered around the United States, Bill Turrentine said. "If our names had
been Smith or Jones, we probably would never have gotten together."

Both the white and black Turrentines sponsor regular reunions -- the whites
every two years at different locations and the blacks annually at the North
Carolina site. Although members of both sides have visited back and forth,
the event this summer was the first consolidated reunion. It was hosted by
the black Turrentines who planned the activities and made the arrangements.

The reunion attracted about 300 people and included a picnic, banquet,
worship at Mount Level Baptist Church, and a talk by Nannie Haley -- widow
of Roots author Alex Haley -- who discussed the importance of family roots
and how to find them. This is something the Turrentines have long known and
appreciated.

The white reunions began in 1941, after George Ruford Turrentine, a dean of
Arkansas Technical College in Russellville, began the detective work of
learning about his ancestors. He got in touch with other Turrentines and
traced their joint heritage to North Carolina. With the help of Samuel B.
Turrentine, Bill and Reese's grandfather, the first reunion was held in
Hillsborough, N.C.

Bill attended the reunion as a child. "My grandfather presided. I remember
my mother thought he was talking too long and told me to carry him a glass
of water. I took him the water, and he cleared his throat and said, 'I think
I'm getting the message here.' I was embarrassed."

Some years later, another Turrentine descendant, Durward Stokes, went to see
Mattie Clyde Turrentine, a matriarch of the black Turrentines, who took him
to the cemetery.

Digging through the undergrowth, they located the grave of Alexander and
then Samuel, along with their wives. "You could imagine the emotions were
high," Bill said. Shortly afterward, the Turrentine Cemetery Fund was set up
to maintain the cemetery.

When Mattie Clyde died, a gravestone was erected that says simply yet
profoundly, "She brought the families together."

The Turrentine story is unique in a day when families are scattered,
particularly after two and a half centuries. "We're very fortunate," Bill
Turrentine said, "not only in finding graves of our ancestors but also in
establishing the relationship with the descendants of former slaves.  It's a
good relationship.  I wish you could see how much fun we had at this
reunion."
#  #  #
*Smith is editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the newspaper serving
the North and South Georgia Conferences of the United Methodist Church. 

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United Methodist News Service
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