My Genealogy Hound

J. M. Tucker, general merchant, Cherokee City, Benton Co., Ark., was born in Madison County, Ind., in 1840, and is a son of John and Angelina (Marsh) Tucker, natives of Ohio, and members of the Free-Will Baptist Church. The father was a successful farmer and merchant, and died in Southwest City, Mo. James M. Tucker was brought to Dallas County, Mo., by his parents when a child, and was there reared to manhood and educated. At the age of nineteen years he went to Colorado in 1860, but returned home in the fall of 1861, and entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Company E, Col. Hunter’s regiment, in Price’s army. He was in the battles of Pea Ridge, Lone Jack (being wounded five times in the latter battle), Cape Girardeau, Pilot Knob, Helena, Prairie Grove and a number of others of less note. He was captured twice, and each time succeeded in effecting his escape. After the war he resided for some time in Boone County, Mo., and helped to build the mills at Southwest City, McDonald Co., Mo. At the end of six years he sold his property in that town and went to Maysville, Benton Co., Ark., where he engaged in the mill and distillery business three years. He afterward made another trip to Colorado, but only remained six months, when he returned and located at Eureka Springs, where he sold family groceries and provisions for ten months. He then spent some time in Texas engaged in the cattle business, and after returning to Arkansas, located in Cherokee City, where he has resided since August 25, 1881. He is the oldest merchant in the place and is doing a prosperous business. He was married in Maysville, Ark., in 1876, to Miss Melvina Dabkins, a daughter of Hugh Dabkins, of Tennessee, and by her is the father of three sons and three daughters. Mr. Tucker is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is well known throughout Benton County, where he is esteemed and respected for his many sterling qualities.