Turner Saunders (January 3 1782 – March 9 1854) was an American Methodist preacher and educational administrator in the early nineteenth‑century Southern United States.
Born in Brunswick County, Virginia, Saunders was the son of Revolutionary War veteran Thomas Saunders and Ann Turner. He married Frances Dunn in 1799; the couple relocated to Franklin, Tennessee, in 1808 and later to Courtland, Alabama, in 1822. After Frances’s death in 1824, Saunders married widow Henrietta Millwater on July 1 1826.
In 1830, Saunders was elected President of the Board of Trustees of LaGrange College, a Methodist institution near Leighton, Alabama. He served in this capacity until 1844, when he moved to Aberdeen, Mississippi. During his tenure, he was noted for his contributions to the college’s governance and for promoting Methodist education in the region.
Saunders resided in the mansion now known as the Goode‑Hall House (also referred to as Saunders’ Hall) in Lawrence County, Alabama. The house, built between 1830 and 1835, exemplifies vernacular classicism and reflects the architectural influence of contemporary pattern books.
He died in Aberdeen, Mississippi, on March 9 1854. Ten of his children survived him, including James E. Saunders, who authored Early Settlers of Alabama, a key historical work on Lawrence County. Turner Saunders is remembered for his long‑standing ministry—approximately forty years—as a local preacher and for his involvement in Methodist religious and educational affairs.