Excerpts from the American Turners NYC website:

The 1848/49 revolution in Germany brought several thousand political refugees to the United States. Among these refugees were Turners, who soon after their arrival, started to build Turner societies after their German models. These German/American organizations were for the development of physical education as well as vehicles with which German immigrants could continue their cultural endeavors in North America during the 19th century. On June 6, 1850, a group of 36 young men, all German, founded what was then called the Socialistischen Turn Verein. In the fall of 1851, this first New York Turner Society established a school for teaching gymnastics to boys. By 1853 there were ten Turner Societies in the nation. 

One major goal of the Turners after the Civil War was the reformation of the American educational system. In 1868 they sought compulsory school attendance for all children until the age of 14 and devoted themselves to the promotion of German gymnastics in American public schools.

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