It seems that the old Weingarten structure had originally been built around a much older building which was the creation of a civil war veteran in 1872. After the flames had destroyed the outer walls of the Weingarten building, a thick walled structure used for cold storage was revealed. That building was the old Turner Hotel/Inn and was quite possibly the oldest building in Hallettsville before it was consumed by the 1997 blaze. Built to serve as a hotel, in the beginning, the Turner House soon became a stage stop for coaches transporting mail and passengers from Columbus to San Antonio. Much
more interesting than the hotel itself is the story of Louis
Turner, the man who built it. Turner, along with his wife, settled
in Hallettsville in 1856. He established his home and started to
practice his trade as a gunsmith at a location one block north of
the square. The couple seemed to be doing well – but that all
came to an abrupt end with the start of the Civil War. Louis
Turner was quick to answer the “call to arms” and immediately
enlisted in J.W. Whitfield’s company. Whitfield, a planter
living on the Navidad, raised the company and promised to arm and
mount each recruit at his expense. In his book History of
Lavaca County, Paul C. Boethel writes that this unit was know
as Whitfield’s Legion and was organized in Lavaca County.
Turner, a German immigrant, enlisted as a bugler for Company D and
was later promoted to headquarters bugler. Turner
had some thrilling adventures during the war, some of them nearly
resulting in his demise. On Sept. 19, 1862, during a skirmish at
Iuka, Mississippi, he was sounding the order to charge a Federal
battery, located on a hilltop, when a bullet from a Yankee
sharpshooter pierced his bugle – another round hit him in the
side. Not to be denied by a few bullets, Turner sounded the charge
again and the Lavaca County boys took the hill. In this battle,
besides taking the hits to his bugle and side, three other rounds
also pierced his clothing. The young man from Hallettsville was back at it on July 27, 1863, at the battle of DesArc Prairie near Ft. Smith, Arkansas. In this fight Turner
was wounded and captured by Union troops. During the
conflict, he was hit in the right leg just above the ankle. His
leg bone was shattered, and tendons were torn apart; his horse was
also killed by the same bullet. Boethel’s History of Lavaca
County describes the events that occurred afterwards,
“He was knocked unconscious by the fall [from his horse],
and when he regained consciousness, the field was deserted except
for the dead and dying. As he lay there, Indians pilfered the
dead, and shot those showing signs of life. Turner escaped this
fate by simulating death until they departed.” After
his ordeal with the Indians, Union troops found Turner and put him
in a wagon bound for Ft. Smith loaded with the dead and wounded.
He was hauled some six miles riding on top of three dead bodies.
Upon his arrival at the hospital the surgeons determined that his
wounds would prove fatal and they had him sent to the death ward.
Evidently the Yankee doctors didn’t realize just how tough this
Hallettsville boy was – when they discovered that he just
refused to die, one of the sawbones decided to operate. Many
splintered bones were removed and his recovery was very slow. It
wasn’t until three months after the end of the war that Louis
Turner decided to try and make it home. He was on crutches at the
time. According
to Paul Boethel’s book Sand In Your Craw, months before
he started home Turner sent his personal belongings along with a
letter to his wife – she never received them and still
considered her husband to be dead. So it was that Louis Turner
started home; wearing the only clothing he could obtain, he was
attired in the blue uniform of the enemy. He was carrying his
crutches, a blanket, and riding atop an army mule. The Lavaca boy
had made rings and other trinkets to sell during his convalescence
at Ft. Smith and it was with these meager funds that he was able
to buy the condemned mule, from the army, for his trip home. During
the long journey to Lavaca County, Turner was turned away at most
homes along the way – considered a “hated blue leg” from the
uniform he was wearing, no Southerner was willing to give him any
help. He slept anywhere he could, on the road or in the fields.
Surviving on corn, green melons, and anything else he could find;
the young man managed to stay alive. It
was when he reached the town of Gonzales that Louis Turner finally
saw a friendly face. An old army acquaintance, Buck Harris,
recognized him and gave him a place to sleep. Anxious to get home,
Turner bid Harris farewell the next day and began the last 30
miles of his journey. When
the young soldier stepped up to the door of his home he was met by
his wife, still dressed in black and mourning his death. Needless
to say, it was a joyous homecoming for both. The couple were said
to have prospered and later establish the Turner House – the old
rock building destroyed by the fire in 1997. The
story goes that the hotel housed and fed many a Southerner but
never a Yankee. It seems the word “Yankee” just stuck in Louis
Turner’s craw and did so until his death in 1906.
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