ID: I1314
Name: Kerenhappuch NORMAN
Given Name: Kerenhappuch
Surname: NORMAN
Sex: F
Birth: 1716 in Culpeper Co. (Halifax Co.) Virginia Colony
Death: 1807 in Richmond Co., N.C. Or Guilford Co., N. C.
Burial: Prob. N. Carolina
_UID: 870AB256E7114E35854C092BFA9C0B500A03
Change Date: 20 Mar 2010 at 22:21
Note:
Page 114 of the Norman Book found in Raleigh, N.C.:
Kerenhappuch Norman, born 1716, married James Turner, born 1710, died in N. Carolina at age 115 years (my info states her age at death as 91 years. DB). She was a Revolutionary heroine and her sons and grandsons fought in the Revolutionary War. When quite old, she nursed the wounded at the battle of Guilford Court House. A monument was unveiled to her memory at the Guilford Battle Ground, N.C., 7/4/1902, and is said to be the first monument erected in honor of a Revolutionary heroine.

She often hunted with her grandsons and it is storied that on one of these hunts she was thrown from a horse & suffered a broken neck.

According to some family legends Kerenhappuch Norman Turner was a spy for Washington during the Revolutionary War. She would travel back & forth between N. Carolina & Virginia on horseback, passing information for the American troops against the British. The Battle of the Guilford Court House took place in 1782.

8 descendants of Kerenhappuch Turner fought in the Battle of Guilford Court House: Her son James and 7 grandsons.

She was the great grandmother of Charles Slaughter Morehead - Governor of Kentucky 1855 - 1859.

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FROM: http://www.homeofourfathers.com/lisbeth/descendancyofnicholasjenkins.htm
THE JENKINS COUSINS

"Keren-happuch (Norman) Turner was so notable a personage as to deserve special attention. She claimed descent from William the Conqueror, it is said, and she came to be like a Clara Barton, Flora Macdonald, or Florence Nightingale. Maryland became her home before the Revolution, and her sons and grandsons entered the American army.
'I expect you to fight,' said she to her young soldiers, 'for it is your duty; but I cannot let you go until you give me your promise, each one of you, that you will keep me informed of your whereabouts and your needs, and send for me if you are wounded.'
'The promise was made to this mother and grandmother,' says The Delienator of January, 1917, 'and the sons went forth to battle. At the battle of Guilford Court House the Turner boys fought under General Greene, and one of the sons [sic - grandsons] received a fearful wound. Word was sent to his mother [sic - grandmother] and she came to him riding on horse-back all the way from her home in Maryland. Placing him in a log-cabin on the Guilford battle-ground, in a crude bed on the floor, she secured tubs in which she bored holes. These tubs she suspended from the rafters and filled with cool water from the 'Bloody Run' which flows nearby. The constant dripping of water on the ghastly wounds allayed the fever and saved her son's [sic - grandson's] life...
Tradition says that Mrs. Turner made the journey with a baby in arms, and on its death she buried it by the roadside; also that she lived to the extreme age of one hundred and fifteen years.'"
From "The Morehead Family of North Carolina and Virginia" by John Motley Morehead.

"...James Turner Smith volunteered at seventeen to fight in the Revolutionary War. He was critically wounded at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina and lay neglected for hours with his thigh completely shattered. Finally he was moved to a log home near the battlefield, where doctors planned to cut the leg off. But Smith would not consent to the amputation. As word of the bloody battle spread to Maryland, his grandmother Kerenhappuch Norman Turner, 90, rode all the way on horseback to be with him, where she nursed him and others back to health. She bored holes in large tubs mounted to the rafters above him. The tubs were kept full of cool water and allowed to drip, continuously cleansing his wound. Today there is a monument at Guilford Battleground to the memory of Kerenhappuch Turner's spirit and courage.... It was a year before he could be moved, but James Turner Smith recovered and married Constantia Ann Ford. Of their five children, only James Norman and his twin Charles Allison survived to adulthood."
From "History of DeWitt County, Texas", edited by Patsy Goebel, Cuero, Texas.

For more info on the Kerenhappuch Turner Monument see:
Battle of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park near Greensboro, North Carolina

"Among the brave soldiers in the campaign through the Carolinas, including the great battle of Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the famous retreat across the great rivers of North Carolina to the Speedwell Iron Works on Troublesome Creek, were General Green settled his army after the battle, were the sons and grandsons of a brave woman, who was not only the 'Mother of a Brave Patriot,' but who herself rendered material service to the cause. etc... This was Kernhappuck Norman Turner, wife of James Turner, said to be a descendant of William the Conqueror. Possessed of the courageous spirit of her husband, as well as noted for her skill in nursing the sick, and her wisdom, tact, and energy --- She loved her children with a true mothers devotion, but she loved her county also. Sending forth her sons to the defense of this country, she exacted from them the promise that she should be kept informed of their whereabouts and needs that she might continue to minister to them. One of
these sons [sic - grandsons] received a fearful wound in the Battle of Guilford Court-House. But the brave woman came to him, riding on horseback all the way from her home in Maryland, and herself, alone, nursed him back into life and service."
From an "Extract from American Monthly for Feb. 1893, pp 205-206," Article written by Mrs. Theodore Whitfield of Richmond, VA.

"It is for me to tell you something of the brave woman in honor of whose memory we today unveil on this sacred spot the first monument ever erected on American soil to a Revolutionary heroine - its granite crowned with a handsome statue, and emblazoned with words of everlasting bronze. In song and in story - 'in thoughts that breathe and in words that burn' - have been told again and again the story of the virtues, the brave deeds, the sacrifice, the suffering, and the heroism of the men who fought, bled, and died in that terrible war for Independence; but the story of the privation, the suffering, the daring, and the dying of the grand reserve army of that war is yet untold and unsung. The women, by their lonely hearthstones, surrounded by helpless children, in the primeval forests, without mail or telegraph or railroad to bring them tidings of the absent loved ones their griefs, their sorrow, their suspense, their anxiety, their agony their death borne without a murmur. They died not in the exciting and exulting rush of battle. Theirs was the long slow, wasting, lingering death - a thousand deaths. Sometimes it was cold-blooded murder; sometimes it was the cold, piercing, cutting dagger of helpless grief; and sometimes they fell under the crushing burden of domestic care and trouble. Their battles were fought in the darkness and loneliness and silence of their homes. They heard not the martial music which thrilled heroes; they felt not the elbow touch which heroes feel in the mad rush of battle. There was never a shout or cheer to give them courage and strength. There were no medals awarded to them; no promotions were bestowed to stimulate them. Theirs was a lonely march to death - and yet how bravely and how patiently they fought to the end no tongue or pen can ever tell. These were heroines - and whilst in village, hamlet, town, and city, from ocean to ocean, we have with stone and brass built memorials of every name, size, and kind in honor of our heroes - the mothers, the wives, and the daughters of that awful time, who toiled and suffered and died for their country, are 'unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' Not only did they suffer and fight and toil thus in their lonely and desolate homes, but these ministers of compassion, these angels of pity, whenever possible, went to the battlefields to moisten the parched tongues, to bind the ghastly wounds, and to soothe the parting agonies alike of friend and foe, and to catch the last whispered messages of love from dying lips. Not since Aaron stood between the living and the dead has there ever been a ministry so gracious, so patient, so self-sacrificing, so tender, so gentle, and so faithful as was that of the heroines of the Revolution.
Among the brave women who hastened to the field of the battle of Guilford Courthouse to minister to the wounded and the dying was Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner, whose sons and grandsons were with General Greene in this battle. Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner was the wife of James Turner, one of the early settlers of Maryland, possessed of his courageous spirit, as well as noted for her skill in nursing the sick, and her wisdom, tact, and energy. She loved her children with the devotion of a true mother, but she loved her country also. Sending forth her sons to the defense of their country, she exacted from them the promise that she should be kept informed of their whereabouts and their needs, that she might continue to minister to them. One of these sons [sic - grandsons] received a fearful wound in the battle of Guilford Courthouse, but the brave mother [sic - grandmother] came to him, riding on horseback all the way from her home in Maryland, and herself nursed him back into life and service. Placing him in a log cabin, near this spot whereon we now stand, upon the floor, beneath the bare rafters, she bored holes in tubs which she suspended from these rafters above the ghastly wounds, and keeping these tubs filled with cool water, from the 'Bloody Run' near by, the constant dripping upon the wound allayed the fever, and she thus improvised a treatment as efficacious as the 'icepack' of modern science.
One of her daughters, Elizabeth, married Joseph Morehead, of North Carolina, of Scotch ancestry, and her descendants have ever been noted for their love of country and public spirit. Another daughter, Mary, married Charles, the brother of Joseph Morehead, and left offspring in the West. Of these, Gov. Charles S. Morehead, of Kentucky, and his cousin, Gov. James Turner Morehead, of the same State, have been eminent statesmen, having served not only as Governor, but also in the Senate of the United States from that State.
The North Carolina branch of the family has given to this State the late Gov. John M. Morehead, one of the greatest, if not the greatest Governor our State has yet produced, who was a great leader of the old Whig party, and the greatest internal improvement man the State has yet known and his brother, Hon. James Turner Morehead, one of the greatest and most distinguished lawyers of his day in this State, and who at one time represented this District in Congress, where he could have remained indefinitely but for his positive refusal to remain in Congress. He preferred his profession, to which he was devoted.
The late Governor Morehead is survived by one son, Maj. J. Turner Morehead, now of New York City. The only surviving sons of the late Hon. James Turner Morehead are Col. James T. Morehead, one of the leading and most distinguished members of the Greensboro bar, who, like his father, is devoted to his profession, preferring it to political honors, and Maj. Joseph M. Morehead, who is now, and has been for some years, the acting President of the Guilford Battle Ground Company. It was the latter who conceived the idea of erecting the beautiful monument which we dedicate and unveil today in honor of the memory of Kerenhappuch Turner. The conception of this idea was submitted by him to his patriotic kinsman, Maj. J. Turner Morehead, of New York City, who like all members of this distinguished family, is noted for his public spirit, and who, with enthusiasm as well as with purse and brain, joined President Morehead in the execution of the idea under the auspices of said Company. These two men are, therefore, entitled to the honor of erecting here the first monument ever built in America to a Revolutionary heroine - an honor of which they may well be proud, and which entitles them to the gratitude of every man who loves his country. They have set an example worthy of imitation, which it is to be hoped will stimulate others to like manifestation of patriotic and filial piety. We honor ourselves in honoring the brave and good woman of whom I speak today.
Her long ride, her gentle touch, her tact, her skill, and her heroic service, saved the life of her son [sic - grandson]. It was an ancient Roman, touched perhaps by a transient gleam of Christian truth, who said when he turned aside from a career of Asiatic conquest that he would rather save a human life than become master of all the dominions of Mithridates. This is but one life of which history and tradition tell us. How many were saved by the tender ministry of the brave women of that awful time will never be known. The history of the part enacted by them in that great struggle has never been written. I salute the Daughters of the American Revolution, who honor us today with their presence, and bid them godspeed in their pious and patriotic work of rescuing from oblivion the history of those heroic days. They can render their sex and their country no greater service than that of rescuing from oblivion those records and traditions which tell us of the glorious deeds and godlike sacrifices of the brave women of those days.
It is fit, Mr. President, that the Daughters of the Revolution should join with us in the tribute we pay today to one who glorified her sex in her homely toils and in her angelic ministry upon this battlefield, where valor wrote in crimson letters 'the purple testament of bleeding war.'
It is meet, too, that on this sabbath of our government this uncounted multitude should come and share with us the honor of dedicating to a brave woman this beautiful monument, around which in the coming years youth and age shall gather and linger to read its story, and to study the annals emblazoned by the Christlike services of the heroines of the Revolution. Then, upon this holy ground, whereon fell the tears of our mothers and the blood of our fathers in the starless night of their supreme effort, let us reverently uncover in the presence of this most fitting and beautiful memorial to the memory of a Revolutionary mother.

'The bravest battle that was ever fought.
Shall I tell you where or when?
On the maps of the world you will find it not,
'Twas fought by the mothers of men.
Nay, not with cannon or battle shot,
With as word, or nobler pen;
Nay, not with eloquent word or thought,
From mouths of wonderful men.
But deep in a walled-up woman's heart,
A woman that would not yield,
But bravely, silently bore her part -
Lo, there is that battlefield.
No marshaling troops, no bivouac song,
No banner to gleam and wave;
But, oh, these battles they last so long -
From babyhood to the grave.
Yet, faithful still as a bridge of stars,
She fights in her walled-up town;
Fights on and on in the endless wars,
Then silent, unseen, goes down.'"

From "Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner - A Heroine of 1776," an address by G. S. Bradshaw Esq. at the unveiling of the Kerenhappuch Turner monument at the Guilford Court House Battle Ground on 4 July 1902.

Father: Isaac **** NORMAN b: 1 Feb 1682 in Abingdon Parish, Gloucester Co., Virginia Colony c: 1 Feb 1682 in Abingdon Episcopal Church - Gloucester Co., VA. Colony
Mother: Frances C. **** COURTNEY b: 17 Jan 1686 in Spotsylvania, Gloucester, Virginia Colony

Marriage 1 James TURNER b: 1710 in Prince William Co., Virginia Colony
Married: 7 May 1734 in Spotsylvania, Virginia Colony
Change Date: 16 Sep 2008
Children
Has Children Sarah TURNER b: 1734 in Orange Co., VA.
Has Children Elizabeth TURNER b: 1736 in Culpeper, Virginia Colony
Has Children Mary Norman TURNER b: 1738 in Culpeper, VA.
Has Children Susannah Kerenhappuch TURNER b: Abt 1740 in Orange, Virginia Colony
Has Children James TURNER b: 1741 1742 in Culpeper, Virginia Colony