Marble Carver–Jarvis Turner, Esq., Mobile Marble Works

Carver, Jarvis Turner

Jarvis Turner was born in Birmingham, England in 1814 and was buried in the Turner lot in the Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama in 1884.

Turner immigrated to New York City as a boy and learned the marble trade there. He started his own marble business in Mobile, Alabama in 1846.

Carver, Jarvis Turner, Receipt

Jarvis Turner married Marcia Ewers in 1847 in Mobile and had seven children, of which only two were alive when Marcia died in 1902. All of their children are buried in the Turner lot in Mobile’s Magnolia Cemetery where an abundance of Turner signed stones can be found.

Marcia had quite an elaborate funeral with twelve carriages as shown on the receipt at left.

Carver, Jarvis Turner, urn willow, column

Turner, who was a stone-cutter himself, and his partner W. D. Stackhouse were in the marble business operating under Mobile Marble Works until they sold out to McDonald, March and Co. after the Civil War.

Carver, Jarvis Turner,

After selling Mobile Marble Works, Turner started “Mobile Door, Sash and Blind Factory” which he left to his children and grandchildren in his will.