Turners in Northern Kentucky: A History

Northern Kentucky has a proud German history but that was not always the case. 

 

 

The 1848-49 revolution in Germany brought several thousand political refugees to the United States, including the Turners. Once in the US, the Turners soon started building Turner societies after their German models. The motto of the Turners was: Sound mind and sound body. 

 

“Turnderein, which is what they were originally called, literally meant to turn, to do gymnastic exercises,” said Paul Tenkotte, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public History at Northern Kentucky History. “They were founded in Germany. The thing with the Turners is that they were also politically motivated. When they came to the United States, they were very much in search of freedom. Democracy was a very important idea for them.”

 

This freedom was challenged in Covington in 1856 on Pentecost Monday when a group of Turners from Covington, Newport, and Cincinnati marched to a picnic spot in the West Covington/Ludlow area. There, they encountered some boys who mocked them of their German ancestry and threw rocks at them. The Turners ignored the boys and carried on to their picnic, but a short time later were approached by someone who became violent with them and started an altercation. Covington Police Marshall Clinton Butts was called to the scene where he was shot in the midst of the fight. He declared the incident a riot and sounded the city’s church bell which was the emergency call system of the day.

  

“So the Covington Turners and the Cincinnati Turners and the Newport Turners who were all marching together, proceeded to go over the bridge on Fourth Street over the Licking River into Newport, and by the time they got there, all the church bells were ringing in Newport and Covington,” Tenkotte said. “There weren’t a lot of police back then, and they couldn’t really do anything about it, so they marched on to the German Turner Hall in Newport, and there they kind of sat down and talked to the police.  The police ended up arresting a number of the Turners, and the Turners hired some attorneys and won the case in the courts. It was an example of anti-immigrant feelings of the time.” 

 

In 1855, the American Party, also referred to as the Know-Nothings because when you asked them what their party was all about, they would say they know nothing, emerged. 

 

“They were basically anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic. They thought there were too many immigrants from Europe taking over jobs from America. So they ran candidates for political office that year in a bunch of places like Cincinnati, Covington and Newport and they were big time in Covington. In fact, the city marshal Clinton Butts was a Know-Nothing and he is the one that ends up getting shot during this so-called riot of the Turners,” Tenkotte said. “So probably what was happening here, is he had a chip on his shoulder about immigrants anyhow, and one little incident–a fight between a Turner and a non-Turner on their way home from a picnic, escalated into a major deal. Since Clinton Butts was called in and he hated the Turners, he hated Germans, he hated immigrants, and he declared it a riot, so things quickly get out of hand when in fact the Germans had done nothing wrong.”

 

Author Dann Woellert explains in his book, Cincinnati Turner Societies: The Cradle of an American Movement that at least 110 people joined the Covington Turners in 1855 during the height of the anti-immigrant movement in Covington. To prepare for any further nativist attacks, strict rules were laid down by the organization in 1860 requiring mandatory attendance at sharpshooting practice for members. The Pfingsmontag Riots in 1856, which the incident became to be known as, made them hypervigilant for further attacks. 

 

Despite the hostility toward them, the Turners became players in the Civil War where they fought bravely for the Union cause. 

 

“A lot of Turners went up to what was called the Turner Regiment in Ohio. It was the Ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The German Turners in Kentucky knew that there were a lot more Germans in Cincinnati so they decided to form a German-speaking regiment. So literally these guys all spoke German. Their commanders spoke German, all the officers spoke German,” Tenkotte explained. “They were the Fighting Ninth, is what they called them and they fought a lot of battles in the Civil War and were really highly regarded. They scared the death out of a lot of Confederate soldiers because here are these Germans who were known for being in shape, and known to hunt and knew how to fight. In fact, the newspapers at the time said that when the doctors were examining the volunteers of this German Regiment, they claimed that when they pounded on their chests, that is was like a blacksmith hitting with his anvil hammering against the iron because these guys were in such good shape. That’s what the Turners did.”

 

The Covington Turners had five different locations in the city before settling on the corner of Main and Pike in 1877 where the building still sits today. In 1915, a tornado ripped the roof off of the Turnhall and caused the collapse of the balcony and the destruction of all the windows, but they were repaired.  

 

Also In 1915, the use of German language was discontinued at the Turner meetings and the group changed its name from Turngemeinde to Covington Turners Society.  William Riedlin was an active Covington Turner and owner of the nearby Bavarian Brewery.

 

Women were accepted as full members in 1950 which helped bolster membership. During the 1960’s and 70’s, the Turners sponsored basketball and knothole baseball for kids. 

 

 

The Newport Turners were the second local Cincinnati Turner Society formed. Many of the first Central Turners lived across the river in Newport. Because there was no bridge across the Ohio River at the time, it became very inconvenient for Newportians to ferry across the river to meetings. 

 

The population of Northern Kentucky at the time was composed primarily of slaveholding members of the Whig and Know-Nothing Parties, and the Germans faced much nativism. It was in the Newport Turnhall on Orchard Street where the Turners of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport held off the Anglo-Kentuckians in the Pfingstmontag Riot of 1856.  

 

There was also a Dayton, Kentucky Turnverein that was officially established in 1877 at John Moeller’s Hall with 50 members. The chapter folded around 1884 with many members joining the Newport hall.