Asa Turner was a member of the “Illinois Band” a group of ministers that came to frontier Illinois. Turner had to leave Illinois due to his abolitionist views and moved north and across the river to the new town of Denmark. The early residents of Denmark were generally abolitionists from New England. Turner wrote to Andover, Massachusetts asking for help in establishing Congregational churches along the Iowa frontier. Nine new ministers came west forming the “Iowa Band.” All fought against slavery. Turner went on to become one of the founders of the Republican Party in Iowa.

Asa Turner, circa 1860 ~Courtesy of the Denmark Congregational Church