Henry Turner, the oldest physician in practice at Millbrook, county of Durham, is a native of the county of Cork, Ireland, a son of Young Turner, merchant, and Alice, nee Evans, and was born March 1, 1829. Both parents came from old Cork families.
The subject of this brief sketch studied at Richmond Hospital School of Medicine; was licensed first by the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, in October 1852, then by Rotunda Hospital the same year, and was graduated at the University of St. Andrews, in 1853.
Dr. Turner came directly to Canada, settled in Millbrook, then a village of perhaps 500 inhabitants, and has been in constant practice here from that date. He has, we believe, the fullest confidence of the people in his skill, and an extensive ride. He took the degree of M.D. at the University of Toronto, in 1859. Since 1871, he has had a drug store in connection with his professional business.
The Doctor has kept out of politics; held no civil offices, but made medicine his study; hence his good standing in the profession. For more than a quarter of a century he has practiced here, and seen the settlement of the country thicken up, and the village expand into a solid little brick town of two thousand inhabitants.
He once attended a military school a short time, at Toronto; takes much interest in the active militia, and is surgeon of the third regiment of cavalry.
In February 1854, Miss Charlotte Hodgins, daughter of the late William Hodgins, Esq., of Dublin, Ireland, became the wife of Dr. Turner, and they have five children living, and have buried three.
One of the most prominent men for many years in the township of Cavan, which includes Millbrook, was John Swain, who was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1790, came to Canada in 1824, and soon afterwards settled in Cavan, where he died in 1878. He was in the town council nearly thirty years, was reeve nearly as long a period, and was an enterprising and perfectly reliable man. In the Methodist church he was a steward and class leader, and zealously devoted to the cause of his Master. He married, first, Susan Burke, of Ireland, by whom he had nine children, seven of them living. He had a second wife, but no more children. His memory “smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust.”