| Newspaper | Cassville Republican, Weekly Paper |
|---|---|
| Date | March 26, 1896 |
| Text | There was a penciled drawing of James Tucker with this item, which was taken from the above photo. Below James and Catherine (Bradley) Tucker |
| Resource | State Historical Society of MO Microfilm - Photo from Darla's family file |
| Headline | James Tucker: A sketch of one of Roaring River's Oldest Citizens |
| Photos | 
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| News | If anyone wants persimmons and can't find them, if they will go up one of the branches, taking the Cedar Creek Road, they will find plenty of them during their season.
They will also find an old gray haired gentlemen who is known through the southwest part of the county.
Agreeability to request, Mr. Tucker furnished the following interesting sketch of his life. "I was born in With [sic] County, West Virginia, near what was called Iron Mountain. My father left there when I was about nine years old and went to Roan [sic] County, TN. He then moved, in the year of 1834, to Montgomery County, IL. I then became acquainted with a girl, by the name of Catherine Bradley, and married her. I lived with her for about 55 years during which time there was born to us eleven children, since which time she died and left me. I left Illinois in the spring of '49 and came to Barry County, and have been here ever since, except during the war." "When I came here it was a wild country, and very thinly settled. There was about ten houses on Roaring River and none on the side borders nearer than Butler's Creek and Rock Creek, and Washburn and Cassville were only trading points in the county. There was one weekly horse mail from Cassville to Carrollton, AR, and no post office between Cassville and Berryville at the time." "There was one voting place on White River, at what is known as the Green Easley place. We had a little Baptist Church held under a shed. We had plenty of game of all kinds - bear, deer, turkey, and all sorts of small game. There was one little pole school house just high enough to walk in and not reach too high, and every man paid for all his own scholars as we had no school money and we did not have much school." "So things rocked along as one might suppose until the 25th day of July 1861. That night I left - the only time I ever run away and I did that to escape the Johnnies. Parson Sollers, and his outfit, tried to catch me and did surround my house. But they failed to take me in, so I went on in to General Lyon's camp, a little west of Springfield, MO. With others from there I went to Rolla, and enlisted in the 12th MO Infantry and served 3 years and 2 months. I was honorably discharged, at St. Louis, MO, and in the fall of '65 I came back home and have been here on this place ever since." "I was born the 25th day of December, 1813. My age is 83 next Christmas Day. My health and strength is extra good for the age. I have never had a paper served on me, stronger than a summons for a grand jury in my life, so I think that I never did anything very bad nor anything very good, so far. I have been a farmer all my life, am financially poor and a poor manager too." Concerning the last statement, it might be well to add Mr. Tucker's hospitably, for which he has a wide reputation, did not permit him to retain as much of his wealth as he might otherwise have done. |
| Submitted by | Donna Cooper
Photos are from the photo files of Darla Marbut |
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