Born in Wallingford, Connecticut, Judge Turhand Kirtland served during the Revolutionary War and became proprietor, agent, and surveyor of the Connecticut Land Company. Appointed judge of Trumbull County in 1800 by Territorial Governor Arthur St. Clair, he later served as state senator for Trumbull County in 1815-1816, as Poland justice of the peace for twenty years, and as moderator of St. James Episcopal Church in Boardman in 1809. In 1803 he was the first Worshipful Master of Erie Lodge No. 47 in Warren, the oldest lodge in the Connecticut Western Reserve and one of six lodges that formed the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio in 1809. He served his God, his country, his fellowman, and his fraternity, and was a benefactor of this village green and cemetery.