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Below is a family biography included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Ashley County, Arkansas published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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Robert F. Tucker, planter, Hamburg, Ark. Prominent among the successful tillers of the soil, in Mill Creek Township, is Mr. Tucker, who became familiar with the duties of that calling at an early age, and has carried this on ever since. He was born in the Blue-Grass State on December 7, 1841, and is a son of Robert Tucker of Virginia, who was a minister and Martha Frances Tucker. The father entered the ministry at an early age, and in 1850 he moved from Kentucky to Arkansas. While on the steamer “Baton Rouge” he lost his wife and two children, Mary J. and Virginia, by cholera. He remained in Arkansas until 1867, and then went to South America on a prospecting trip. He liked the country very well, but for various reasons was not able to stay, and later returned to the States and settled in Illinois, joining the Louisville conference two years later, and died in the Cumberland Mountains in Kentucky, on February 2, 1875. He was a member of the State Legislature, and was a man universally respected. Robert F. Tucker first started out for himself when seventeen years of age, and engaged in the drug business in Hamburg, remaining there until the breaking out of the war. He enlisted as a private in the Ninth Arkansas, Company K, Infantry, in 1861, his first great battle being at Shiloh, and was promoted to orderly sergeant. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, in Georgia, all of the officers were killed and wounded down to orderly sergeant, and Mr. Tucker had to command the company at that time. He was under Gen. Johnston, and fought Sherman from Dalton to Atlanta, being in all the battles of note in that bloody march. After the battle of Franklin (the same year the war closed) Mr. Tucker went home on a furlough, traveled on foot and alone, crossed the Mississippi River in a small canoe under cover of the night, and came very near being capsized by a gunboat that happened to be passing. He then made his way home as rapidly as possible, traveling for the most part by night. After having crossed the Mississippi River some distance, he came upon Osborne’s troops, 5,000 strong, on their march from the bottoms of Bayou Bartholomew, in Louisiana northward. He gave them the “dodge,” however, and finally pursued his way home. Going to his sister’s, he remained there, but before his furlough expired the close of the war came. At that time he took charge of his father’s place, and has remained on the same ever since. He hurriedly put in a crop of cotton which he sold for $100 per bale, and sold other produce in the same proportion. Mr. Tucker was elected to the office of tax assessor in the year 1876, and held this position for several years. Afterward he was appointed by the governor to fill the unexpired term of B. M. Watson in the same office. He frequently filled the office of deputy sheriff under Capt. T. S. Stillwell. His father owned over 1,000 acres of land, and Mr. Tucker owns over 500 acres himself, and has 100 acres under cultivation. On April 20, 1861, he was married to Miss Anna M. Duncan, daughter of John P. Duncan, and they have seven children living and three deceased. In politics Mr. Tucker is Democratic, and socially is a member of the K. of P. and K. of H., being a prominent member in these orders. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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This family biography is one of 97 biographies included in Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Ashley County, Arkansas published in 1890.  For the complete description, click here: Ashley County, Arkansas History, Genealogy, and Maps

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