Fifth Generation

I found out a little more about the Webb School, where the Tucker boys went to high school. It is a boarding school near Bell Buckle, TN and was found in 1870. A wikipedia article says that many of the graduates went to Vanderbuilt. Several of my relatives did indeed go on to Vanderbilt. So my great grandfather went to boarding school during his late teen years. A good way to research is to find old yearbooks to see what my great grandfather was like in High School, etc. From all of the stories I have heard, my great grandfather loved to have a little too much fun!

My grandmother also went to a boarding school, but I can’t remember the name or if it was a private girl’s college.

Notable alumni-

TRAPPER JOHN!! He later went to Princeton University and is from Alabama. Didn’t know that!

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A good way to organize your research is through making an outline or a chronological chart of your ancestor. I guess it is sort of a resume. Here is an outine of Joseph Magruder Tucker based on a biography written by my grandmother, Frances Tucker Lee.

BORN- 14 June 1883 in Ripley, Lauderdale, Tennessee on Fain Springs Road

PARENTS- William Tucker who was 43 years old and from Virginia and Annie Elizabeth Watkins, 31, from Murfreesboro

SIBLINGS- He had two older brothers and two older sisters Will, Harry (Wat?), Daisy, and Annie.

MOVED- Tucker Hill in 1884

SIBLINGS- Two more brothers Russell Aubrey and John Randolph, mother became ill, maternal grandmother and uncles moved to home

SCHOOL- Elementary in Ripley then went to Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennesse. Mother wanted him to be a minister and a gentleman so he was sent to Bethel College where he was a member of a Fraternity.

DATING- Courted several girls and began to court Ida Pope Majors who was a sheltered girl whose family came from Georgia. Her father asked when Joe was ever going to get married.

MARRIAGE- Ida Pope Majors who was 21, Joe was 23. They had 6 children, Joe Jr, Landrum, Marshall, John, Matthew, and Frances.

WORK- Mail Carrier Ripley, TN

Farming, Ashdown , Arkansas

Clerk Watkins Tucker Hardware Store

Owner- Lumber Business and a Car Lot

CHURCH- Deacon of Ripley Baptist Church

SERVICE- President, City Club

Executive Board, Hospital for Crippled Adults

Treasurer- Lauderdale County Red Cross

Mayor- Ripley, Tennessee 6 years

Alderman- Ripley, Tennessee 4 years

Chairman- War Fund Drive

AWARDS- “Silver Beaver” Boy Scouts of America

ILLNESS- heart disease

TRAITS- Brown eyes, dark hair, playful, gentle, sense of humor, prankster, servant of his community, loved card games

NOTES- Here you can put references to documents like the US Census and Newspaper Articles and what you have of his like pictures and other items. We have several pictures of him and some newpaper clippings. If you have furniture or heirlooms take pictures of them and say who has them. You collect of these items and put it in your genealogy notebook on “Tuckers of Ripley, TN” for example.

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This is the family of William Tucker and Annie Elizabeth Watkins and their spouses.

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She was born in October of 1852 in Rutherford County, Tennessee near Murfreesboro, TN. Her parents were Jospeh Magruder Watkins and Margaret Linster. Her father came from Montgomery County, Maryland and settled in Tennessee. He first married Lavinia Penn and had five children with her. She died and then he married Margaret Linster. Margaret had Annie, Harry, Lee, and another daughter.They were supposed to be a musical family and a cousin was known to speak several languages and sing opera. A distant relative sang opera in New York and the household was known to have a piano.

Annie was well educated and came from a very old southern family. She was described as tall and elegant. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of her that I know of.  She went to a girl’s school in Murfreesboro and after graduation became a teacher. She got a job to teach in Ripley, TN along with another of her friends. THey lived in a boarding house where a young Virginian man named William Tucker lived. They ate at the same table together as boarders and began to talk and get to know each other. They fell in love and were married in 1873 when she was 20 years old. They lived on a friend’s property as her husband became more prosperous. He eventually bought and built Tucker Hill for his wife whom he loved dearly. She had seven children. Her brothers and her mother Margaret Linster, joined Annie in Ripley. After the last child, (John Randolph) she became ill. I do not know the nature of the illness. The only picture I have seen of her is from a distance where you cannot see her face and she is holding a cane. She was unable to care for her large family. Her daughters helped her care for the younger children. She was still in charge of her children. According to my grandmother, she wanted her sons to be gentlemen and wanted them to attend college. My great grandfather Joe Magruder Tucker was sent to college at Bethel. Her children were well educated and groomed to be leaders of their community. Her son Joe ended up being mayor of the town of Ripley. I believe that a lot of the success of the Tuckers is due to her. After meeting her, for example, her husband’s life improved greatly. After her daughters got married she lived with them. In her old age, she lived with Daisy Tucker in St. Louis, Missouri where she died in 1917. She was buried in Ripley, Tennessee.

I would have really loved to get to know her. She seems well read and interesting contrasting every stereotype of the stiff woman of the Victorian age who can’t even read newspapers. (I think Ida Majors might have been raised in this way as she was described as “sheltered”) I know she named her son Aubre after a character in a Romance novel! I would love to see a picture of her (she was described as being elegant and graceful) and would like to know what illness she has that kept her in bed for so long.  After I have babies my pelvic bones split making it difficult to walk. I wonder if she had the same problem. The cane is a big clue.  Right now I am focusing on her grandmother’s, Catherine Magruder, family.

  This is the only picture of her that I know of. She is standing in front of her home, Tucker Hill.

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Ok, another genealogy lesson. I always forget the basics because my mother always did genealogy. We would fill out pedigree charts for our Family Home Evening lessons and for Young Women projects. Now that I am married to someone who was not raised in the church I realize how difficult genealogy is and am thankful for my family before me who did the research that I am now simply organizing. Because of their research I can easily name all of my fifth generation. After that, that is when gaps in the family tree occur.

To begin genealogy, itis a good thing to start with your parents and get all of their information. Where they were born, who were their brothers and sisters, who were their parents, where did they go to school, where did they meet, where and when did they get married, who was at the wedding, when did they have children, etc. Then after you get as much information as you can on your parents, you move backwards to your grandparents. You can get the information through interviews, newspapers, yearbooks, and pictures. If your parents are dead or missing you can interview your aunts and uncles, neighbors, and friends. My husband recently did this after his father passed away and found out interesting information about his grandfather that he didn’t know before and even saw his grandfather’s death certificate. (which he didn’t copy!!!)  Now he needs to ask his aunts and uncles about his grandparents and find their graves. He already has pictures and lots of information, includign a picture of the tombstone, of his maternal grandparents. It is his paternal grandparents that he doesn’t know too much about.

You might be like me who was always close to my grandparents and aunts and uncles. My paternal grandparents only very recently passed away. Before they died they wrote down their autobiographies. I am thankful for that. I now know many details of my grandparents. I am waiting for my maternal grandparents to write their autobiographies!

Now the test: Name your great-grandparents. There are 8 of them. That is where many people run into a challenge especially if they come from an immigrant family. Since I grew up pretty much in the same place that my family has been in for the past 150 years, I grew up around a lot of my distant relatives. I knew three great grandparents personally but knew many who knew the great grandparents who had alreay died. The great grandparents I know the least about are my biological great grandfather Julian McLin Keith and my maternal Etheridge great grandparents. I hope to talk to my grandfather to have him tell me more about his parents this summer. I know a little information here and there but would like it more organized. Julian McLin Keith will be more of a challenge. We don’t even know when he died or if he ever remarried.

So that is your homework, name your great grandparents! Here are mine: (if you can’t name your grandparents!)

• Ruth Hester Fowler Born in NC died in Chattanooga, TN “Meemaw” 1901-1992
• Julian McLin Keith Born in Atlanta, GA 1897-?
• Irby Overton Lee Born in SC died in Chattanooga, TN 1901-1984
• Joseph Magruder Tucker Born and died in Ripley,TN 1883-1951
• Ida Pope Majors Born and died in Ripley, TN1885-1925
• James Ollie Etheridge Born in Kentucky, died in West Tennessee 1908-1968
• Lena Irene Burns Born and died in West Tennessee 1907-1968
• Vilous Wayne Johnson Born and died in West Tennessee 1912-1974
• Nannie Mildred Warren Born and died in West Tennessee 1914-2007

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