Born in County Wexford, Peter Turner came to America as a teenager, settling in what was then Brooklyn Village. Like many Irish immigrants, he found work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which opened in 1801. Prior to that date, Brooklyn’s Catholic population was small, but the numbers would grow rapidly over the next twenty years.

The closest Catholic Church, however, was St. Peter’s on Barclay Street in Manhattan, which meant that Brooklyn Catholics had to take the Fulton Street Ferry to get to Sunday Mass.

It was Peter Turner who led the move to establish Catholic institutional life on Long Island. On January 7, 1822, he issued a circular, calling for a meeting of all Brooklyn Catholics. At the meeting, he was elected president of the newly-formed Roman Catholic Society of Brooklyn. Under Turner’s leadership, the Society bought land for St. James, Long Island’s first Catholic church (now St. James Cathedral Basilica). St. James School and a parish cemetery followed in 1823.

In 1830, Turner was elected the first President of the Roman Catholic Orphan Society of Brooklyn, an organization founded to care for orphans and needy children. He helped bring the Sisters of Charity to Brooklyn in 1831. Turner was a leading figure in the formation of the Emerald Association, whose annual ball has raised money for Catholic childcare on Long Island