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Henry Bellenger Tucker Oregon Historical Society, published October 12,
1898 article from the Oregonian or the Hillsboro Argus HILLSBORO, Oct. 12 -- Oregon perhaps contains a no more interesting group of early pioneers than the Tucker family. The father, Henry Bellenger, now 94 years of age, and his two sons, Thomas and William, aged 68 and 65, respectively, are now hale and strong, living in Washington County. Having come to Oregon in 1852, they have been important factors in the development of the state. Henry Bellenger Tucker was born in Kentucky in 1804. His father was a Kentucky rifleman, originally from North Carolina, and was with Hull in the war of 1812, from which he never returned. "Granddaddy" Tucker, as he is familiarly called by all old pioneers, was married in Indiana in 1829 to Elizabeth McKay. They had six children -- Martha, Mary, Sara, and Louisa Tucker, and the two sons, the latter only surviving. His wife died at Beaverton August 3, 1881, on the donation land claim taken up in 1852. Mr. Tucker is about 5 feet 8 inches in height, and, notwithstanding his 94 years, walks as erect as an Indian, and still retains his mental faculties. He is very vigorous, and is a good story teller. As late as two years ago he read without the use of glasses. In the early days he was a famous rifle shot, and his prowess, and that of his two sons, was undisputed at the old-time shooting matches. His first vote for president was cast for Andrew Jackson. Since the civil war he has been a Republican. He is the sole survivor of six children. His ancestors came from the Bermudas, and were early settlers of Virginia. Thomas Tucker, the eldest son, was born in Indiana in 1831. He married Mary A. McKay in 1854. They settled on a donation land claim near Beaverton. To them were born five children -- Samuel H. Tucker, a well-known O.R. & N. engineer, who died at his post on a snow plow, near Troutdale, January 3, 1895; William O. and Lucinda J. Tucker, Mrs. U.S. Gardner, and Mrs. Charles Elwell. Mr. Tucker's first house was built of logs, which were carried to the site upon his back. He was in the early days twice elected county commissioner. He, with Jacob Hoover, brought suit against the promoters of the West Side railroad, and saved the county the payment of $50,000 bonds, with interest. The county had originally contracted to pay this sum to secure the railroad, but the company did not live up to the contract. Although the company made a hard fight, the court rendered a decision returning the bonds, and releasing the county. During war times Mr. Tucker belonged to the Union league. His first vote was cast for Abraham Lincoln. He still takes a great interest in politics, and is an ardent republican. He and his wife now reside in Hillsboro, having sold their Beaverton farm several years ago. Mr. Tucker is over six feet tall, and is an ideal pioneer. A splendid marksman, he still remains an ardent hunter, and has just returned from an elk hunt in the mountains. William Tucker was born in Indiana in 1833. When he was but 19 years of age he crossed the plains with his father. He took up a claim near Beaverton, and he and his brother built the first sawmill in that section. In 1855 he joined Colonel Cornelius' command, and went east of the mountains to fight indians. In 1859 he married Mary J. Landess. Their children are: Mrs. George Teft, Abraham Lincoln Tucker (deceased), Thomas B. and George Tucker, Mrs. Henry Woolf, Mrs. W. B. Anderson, Mrs. J. H. Anderson, Ira, William, Lottie, and Carl Tucker. Mr. Tucker is a Mason and he has for 35 years taken an active part in local affairs. Like his brother Thomas, he is a six-footer. He still resides on a farm near Beaverton. Obituary of Henry B. Tucker (May, 1899) Early in life Henry Tucker went to Indiana, where he married Elizabeth McKay, daughter of a veteran of the war of 1812. The summer of 1852 they crossed the plains, their children coming with the train. They settled near Beaverton, where the wife died in August, 1881. Two sons survive -- Thomas Tucker, a resident of Hillsboro, aged 69, and William, aged 67, with whom the father was visiting when death came. Deceased was in the early days one of Oregon's famous rifle-shots, and his prowess as a hunter was a credit to the reputation of Kentucky for producing the world's greatest marksmen. Mr. Tucker's first presidential vote was cast for Andrew Jackson. Since the civil war, however, he has been an ardent republican. The funeral occurred Sunday from the home of his son, William, and burial took place at the Crescent cemetery, three miles southeast of Beaverton. --------The following comes from a family history document I put together a few years ago, which weaves some of the family folklore into the facts from the 1898 article. The biography also includes some other information from the Oregon Historical Society pioneer card catalog entries. West to IndianaHenry Bellinger Tucker, my Great Great Grandfather, was born on December 12, 1804 in Adair County, Kentucky. The son of a Kentucky Rifleman, he was left without a father at the age of 8 when his father was killed at the Battle for the River Raisin in January, 1813. Sometime between January, 1813 and 1829, Henry Bellinger Tucker moved to Ripley County, in Southeast Indiana, about 150 miles north of Adair County. It was there on February 5, 1829, at the age of 24, that he married 14-year old Elizabeth McKay(11). While getting married at 14 is young by today's standards, it was not unusual in the frontier west, nor unusual for the next two generations of Tuckers. Elizabeth McKay was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina on May 7, 1814 to Samuel (1784 - 1872) and Mary Ann (Martin) McKay (1787 - 1849). Elizabeth was the second child in a family of six. Her older brother, who was named Thomas, was born five years before Elizabeth, also in Wilkes County North Carolina. Her four younger siblings, who were all born after the McKay family had moved to Indiana, were Christina, William, Henry, and James(12). Henry and Elizabeth Tucker would have a long life together and produce two sons and four daughters -- Martha (birthdate unknown), Thomas (born in 1831), William (born in 1833), Mary (born in 1835), Sarah (birthdate unknown), and Louisa (born in 1849). All of these children were born in Ripley County, Indiana. Out of these six children, the youngest five would make the journey to Oregon on the covered wagon. The three daughters would die young, while one of the sons would find a wife in Oregon and become my Great Grandfather. Wagons, Ho!The personal and economic reasons of why Henry and Elizabeth ultimately decided to leave Indiana and head west are unknown. However, some friends and family members had proceeded them (Elizabeth Tucker's young brother James McKay and younger sister Christina (McKay) Harty had made the trip to Oregon in 1851 with their families), and wrote them about the trip west and the country they found at the end of the Oregon trail(12). The records show that on February 17, 1852, Henry and Elizabeth and their five youngest children (Sarah, Thomas, William, Mary, and Louisa) boarded a wagon train and started to Oregon. Also on the wagon train were Elizabeth Tucker's father, Samuel, whose wife had died in 1849, and her brother Thomas and his family(12). The size of the wagon train and the names of other families that might have been on that same journey are unknown. In taking part of the journey west in 1852, The Tucker's became part of the largest migration year of the Oregon trail, with about 10,000 people coming west into Oregon. An interesting family story8 about this wagon trip involves the crossing of the great plains. It seems that at one point, the wagon train ground to a halt and could not move because of a buffalo herd. There were so many buffalo that the travelers had to wait a day and a half for the buffalo to pass before they could resume the journey (4). Another family story about the trip to Oregon involves a loud mouth braggart who declared that he was going to shoot the first Indian he encountered on the trail. This he did. He shot a squaw who was getting water at a stream. Shortly thereafter, the tribe to whom the squaw belonged demanded that the squaw killer be turned over to them. It was decided to take the wagon train out of jeopardy and to comply with the wishes of the Indians. The squaw killer was never heard from again. The Tucker's arrived in Portland on August 29, 1852. All members of the family survived the trip. Not everyone in the Tucker clan liked Oregon, but it was a long way back to Indiana and they became reconciled to change. The Tuckers of OregonOnly five years earlier, in 1847, Portland had consisted of a single log cabin on the banks of the Willamette river. But, by the time the Tuckers arrived in Oregon in the summer of 1852, the population of Portland had grown to over a thousand, with new immigrants arriving daily. At least one of the Tucker sons, William, remained in Portland for a few months and made money by cutting and selling firewood in the area between Polk and third and fourth streets(13). We do know that the men of the Tucker family filed for land claims in what is now present day Beaverton(14). Henry Bellinger Tucker and his wife Elizabeth settled a 320 acre (1/2 section) donation land claim in the Progress area, near Beaverton, Oregon (about 10 miles west of Portland). This land was slightly east of Scholl's Ferry road. Fanno creek and Garden Home road run through portions of this property and a large portion of the Progress golf course now exist on this settlement. On August 1, 1881, at the age of 67, Elizabeth Tucker died on their donation land claim in Beaverton. She is buried in the Crescent Grove cemetery behind the Washington Square shopping mall in Beaverton. Although there is no stone next to hers, there is room for another plot. A card in the card catalog at the Oregon Historical Society says that Henry Bellinger Tucker is also buried there; but, when visiting the cemetery, I could find no marker. Also, various children and grandchildren of Henry and Elizabeth are buried in the same area of the cemetery. An 1898 newspaper article describes Henry B. Tucker, an early Oregon pioneer, who was 93 and living in Beaverton at the time the article was published. The newspaper gave his height at 5 feet 8 inches tall and mentions that he still walks erect, and read without the aid of glasses until two years earlier. The article also categorizes him as a "good story teller", "a famous rifle shot in his younger days", and says that "he cast his first presidential vote for Andrew Jackson". Henry Bellinger Tucker died on May 4, 1899 at the age of 94, within a year after the publication of the newspaper article. Hard, Short LivesOf the five Tucker children that accompanied Henry and Elizabeth to Oregon, it was to be a hard short life for the women of the family. Of the three daughters, all had died within about a decade of arriving in Oregon15: Sarah Tucker lived about a year in Oregon and died sometime in 1853. Because Sarah's birthdate is unknown, it is not known how old she was when she died, what she died of, or whether she was married. She could not have been older than 23, and was perhaps quite a bit younger (her younger sister would have only been four at the time). Mary Tucker married Thomas Cornwall at the age of 19 on March 16, 1855, but died at the age of 22 on April 25, 1857. The cause has not been found in my research. Louisa Tucker died in 1864 at the age of 15. The two sons of Henry and Elizabeth, however, would live a long life and become prominent citizens in Washington county. The Families of Thomas and William TuckerWhen Thomas and William Tucker came to Oregon from Indiana, Thomas was 21 and William was 19. After arriving in Oregon, Thomas settled a 160 acre (1/4 section) donation land claim, also in Beaverton. The location of the settlement of Thomas Tucker was about a mile west of his parents, and bordered on the south by present day Denny Road. Allen Boulevard now passes through the northern third of this property. On October 19, 1854, Thomas Tucker married 19 year old Mary Ann McKay. Like Thomas, Mary Ann McKay had also been born in Ripley County, Indiana (on August 15, 1836) and had journeyed to Oregon in 1852 with her parents. Mary Ann McKay was the daughter of Thomas and Mary McKay. Because Henry Bellinger Tucker's wife's maiden name was Elizabeth McKay, and she had a brother named Thomas, Mary Ann McKay is thought to have been Elizabeth's niece and Thomas Tucker's first cousin. Together, Mary Ann and Thomas Tucker had five children:
Thomas Tucker was the first Washington County commissioner, and was twice elected to that post. After living on the donation land claim for a number of years, they sold that claim and moved to Hillsboro, which is about 10 miles west of Beaverton. Mary Ann Tucker died on November 30, 1905 at the age of 69. Thomas Tucker died on June 17, 1916. Both are buried in the Tucker family plot at Crescent Grove cemetery in Beaverton Oregon. Two of their children are also buried there -- William Orville Tucker (1859 - 1930) and Lizzie Tucker Gardner (1867 - 1919). William TuckerWilliam Tucker, my great grandfather, was the third child in a family of six and the younger son of Henry Bellinger Tucker. After spending the first three months in Oregon cutting cord wood in what is now downtown Portland, Oregon, he moved to Washington County and took up a 120 acre land claim in what is now downtown Beaverton. The western border of their property is now Tucker Avenue, near the present day Beaverton post office. Together with his brother Thomas, William built the first sawmill in the Beaverton area. In the fall of 1855, William journeyed east under the command of Colonel Cornelius to the fight the Indians4. Although I am not sure where he went to do this, the timing would fit the Walla Walla Indian uprising near Walla Walla, Washington. A story about this service indicates that at one point, William and his troops were short of supplies and were forced to eat their own horses as food13. On November 19, 1859, 26 year old William Tucker married Mary Jane Landess -- one day after her 14th birthday! Mary Jane was born on November 18, 1845 in Adams Co. Illinois. She was one of the early Oregon pioneers to use the Oregon trail, starting to Oregon at the age of 18 months in April 1847 and arriving in September of that same year. Mary Jane Landess was from a family of five -- she had three sisters (Elinore, Adeline, and Martha) and one brother (George W. Landess). She was the daughter of Abraham Landess (1825 - 1855) and Diana (Decker) Landess (1824 - 1882). Both her father and Grandfather were known as wagon makers, but also did some farming. The Landess trip to Oregon was a family affair; Mary Jane's Grandfather and Grandmother (Abraham and Elizabeth), her parents and siblings, and several uncles (William, John, and Felix) and their families all made the 1847 trip. When Mary Jane arrived in Oregon (a full five years before the Tucker family), Portland consisted of nothing more than a single log cabin on the banks of the Willamette River. The elder Abraham Landess (Mary Jane's Grandfather) had donation land claim #635 in Washington County. During the 1862 -63 gold rush at the Powder River valley in eastern Oregon, William Tucker headed east and tried gold digging13. However, he did not remain for long and soon returned to Beaverton and farming, where he remained for the better part of his life. Besides farming, he also did some carpentry work and was a member of the Masons. William and Mary Jane Tucker had 10 children together:
77 year old William Tucker died on November 8, 1910. His wife, Mary Jane, died at the age of 74 on May 6, 1920. Both are buried in the Crescent Grove cemetery in Beaverton. William and Mary Jane's son Abraham (1861 to 1887), who died at the age of 25, is also buried there. Into the 20th CenturyAs the 20th century approached, the five children of Thomas and Mary Ann, and the 10 children of William and Mary Jane became more widely scattered. >From this point on, the story only follows the path of my Grandfather, George Washington Tucker, and his numerous children. (20th Century Narrative Omitted) Notes:
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