Sam Turk of Emlenton, Pennsylvania, is a great-grandson of John Turk and Mary Ann Marshall.  In the summer of 2005, he told me the story of his great-uncle Charles E. Turk, whose on-again, off-again presence in family records is a bit mysterious. 

     In May 1866, the Turk family awoke one morning to see a milk cow tied to their fence.  On their doorstep was an infant--the child who would be reared by them as Charles E. Turk.  The Turk family believed that he was the unwanted child of a prominent local family’s unmarried daughter, and that family believed the Turks would give the baby a good home.  This, in spite of the fact that John and Mary Turk had three sons already [Elisha, aged 10,  Henry, aged 8 and Samuel, aged 3]; and that Mary would give birth to a fourth child [John] that December. The cow, apparently, was a gift to help them out!  

     The 1870 Census record for the Turk Family shows this boy as "Leewalt Charles Turk"  --  a four year-old child in the household. The census taker lists the Turk children in descending order according to age, with Anna (aged 1) listed last.  A line ( --- ) functions as ditto marks, indicating that each child's surname is Turk.  This line appears also for Charles, whose name is listed after Anna's name, and followed by the words Leewalt Charles.

     But could this boy's name be Charles Leewalt, since he is not listed chronologically with the other children?  An internet search for the surname Leewalt draws a blank, although there are phonetically similar variations.  But a lucky overview of the Robinson Archives in the Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, shows a Christopher Leewalt who has an account with the Robinson store in 1865 and 1866.  On 14 February 1866--three months before the child's birth--he pays off his account ($70.80), and there's no further record of him in the store ledgers.  He's the boy's father, isn't he?

     Sam recalls that Charles Turk never married and led a somewhat destitute life in Parker and Edenburg (Knox)--this, in stark contrast to the success of his "brothers" Henry Marshall Turk and Samuel Marshall Turk.  Charles is listed as a brother of Elisha Turk, in Turk’s 1887 obituary.  Marge Zollinger gave me a little book which had belonged to him, entitled Conklin’s Handy Manual of Useful Information and World’s Atlas (Chicago, 1891), and I've passed it along to Sam.  The signature, above, is from the front endpage of this booklet.

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