Background
Ellwood Turner was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to Frederick Fairthorne and Virginia (née Short) Turner.
Ellwood Turner was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, to Frederick Fairthorne and Virginia (née Short) Turner.
He graduated from Chester High School in 1904. He attended Swarthmore College for one year before studying at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1908.
He moved with his family to Scranton, then Wilkes-Barre, before settling in Chester. He practiced law in Philadelphia and opened an office in Chester in 1912. He served as the first president of the Kiwanis Club of Chester after it was founded in 1919.
He was later elected Governor of the Pennsylvania District (1920) and Vice-President of Kiwanis International (1924).
Turner was first elected as a Republican to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from Delaware County in 1924. He also introduced legislation prohibiting more than one family member from working for the state, a proposal which was aimed at Pinchot"s personal secretary (who was married to a clerical worker in the governor"s office).
Turner became House Speaker after Republicans regained control of the legislature in 1939, serving in that position until 1941. He was elected to the Board of Managers of the Council of State Governments in 1937, serving as chairman in 1940.
He also served as chairman of the Interstate Commission on the Delaware River Basin.
In 1945, he unsuccessfully challenged East. Wallace Chadwick for the Republican nomination for the county probate court.
He was a Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1925 to 1948, serving as Speaker from 1939 to 1941. At Penn, he served as class president each year, played on the varsity football team, and was a member of the Mask and Wig Club.
