Asa Turner: Iowa Time Machine June 11, 1799

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On June 11, 1799, Asa Turner was born. He went on to become one of the most influential religious and reform leaders in early Iowa, a man whose work helped shape the state’s churches, schools, and antislavery politics.

Turner was born in Massachusetts in 1799 and trained for the ministry at Amherst Academy, Yale, and Yale Divinity School. After his ordination in 1830, he moved west, helped establish churches in Illinois, and then crossed into Iowa. In 1838, he and Julius A. Reed founded the first Congregationalist church west of the Mississippi River at Denmark, Iowa, and Turner soon became its pastor.

Turner also served as the first missionary agent for Iowa in 1839, then helped bring the Iowa Band of missionaries west, along with more than 100 others who followed their example. His work helped create Denmark Academy and Iowa College (now Grinnell College), both of which became lasting educational foundations in the state.

Turner also spoke against slavery, opposed Iowa’s early Black-exclusionary law, and argued that slavery was a sin rather than a political inconvenience. His role in the fusion of antislavery forces behind James W. Grimes also links him to the rise of the Iowa Republican Party, which shows how reform movements could become electoral power. #Iowa #OTD #History #Religion #Politics