DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're looking at the Turner House in Harrison County — and friend, this place has a story that starts with a merchant, passes through a poker table, and settles in for more than a hundred years. George Gammon Gregg, a leading merchant, built this frame house during the early 1850s.
A solid house, a proper house — the kind a leading merchant builds when he means to stay. But George Gammon Gregg did not stay, at least not in the way he planned. Now the marker doesn't spell out every twist between Gregg and what came next, but family tradition — and family tradition in Texas is not a thing you dismiss lightly — holds that a Confederate veteran by the name of James Turner acquired title to this property after a poker game.
In 1866. Let that sit for a second. A whole house, changing hands across a card table.
Whatever was dealt that night, James Turner walked away holding the deed. And it turns out the man was not just lucky at cards. Turner was a noted lawyer, and he served four years as mayor of Marshall.
So he had the house, he had the law, and he had the town's attention. He passed in 1913, and the story might have ended there — but it didn't, because the house was already in the family's blood. His son Robert, born in 1868, had already left his own mark on the place.
Back in 1890, Robert added the front porch — those Victorian columns you can still see standing there, dressed up and dignified, like they've always belonged. And in a way, by then, they had. The Turner family kept hold of this residence for over a hundred years.
Over a hundred years on a property that, if family tradition is to be believed, came to them on the turn of a card in 1866. Some hands, it turns out, just keep on paying out.
What the marker says
George Gammon Gregg, a leading merchant, built this frame house during the early 1850s. According to family tradition, Confederate veteran James Turner (d. 1913) acquired title to the property after a poker game in 1866. Turner was a noted lawyer and served four years as mayor of Marshall. His son Robert (1868-1927) added the front porch, with its Victorian columns, in 1890. Members of the Turner family owned the residence for over 100 years. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979