My Genealogy Hound

CLINTON J. RUCKER is one of the enterprising young farmers of Johnson County, who, for the past eight years, has carried on farming in township 46, range 25. He is a self-made man, and received his start in life by investing his earnings in a steam thresher, which he ran nine years, making $3,000 clear profit in that time. He is now President of the School Board No. 36, Union Prairie. In his political convictions he is a Democrat and a firm believer in the platform of the party.

John Rucker, the father of our subject, was a native of Luray, Rockingham County, W. Va., where he lived on a farm for many years. He also built boats and rafted lumber down the river. In 1855 he moved to Greene County, Ohio, where he bought a farm and lived until March, 1873. Selling out his Ohio possessions, he started for Missouri in the year last mentioned and settled on eighty acres of land which he had previously bought in this county. The place was in what was known as the Gallahar Addition to Warrensburg, and there he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1887. He was prominent in that locality. His widow lived in Warrensburg until her demise, September 23, 1893. Her maiden name was Mary J. Smith, and her birth occurred in the same county as that of her husband. She was one of eight children, only three of whom are now living: William, Jefferson and Mrs. Cheek, all large land-owners and farmers of Pike County, Ill. The father had two brothers: Ambrose, a farmer in California; and Smith, who is a farmer and stock-raiser in Iowa; and three sisters, Julia, Peachy and Mary, who live in Illinois. At the time of his death, John Rucker was the owner of eleven hundred acres of valuable farm land in this county.

Clinton J. Rucker, who was born near Xenia, Ohio, on a farm, March 11, 1857, is the fourth in a family of ten children. The others are as follows: Mary, the wife of Jesse T. Ellis, a merchant of Arrowsmith, Ill.; Sarah, wife of John C. Earnhardt, a machinist of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Jennie, who married Dr. Alexander Smith, now of Pottersburg, Union County, Ohio; William, who first married Mary Watkins, of Pike County, Ill., and after her death was married, in Kansas City, to Ella Wyricks; Alice, deceased, wife of Henry T. Hitt, who is a farmer three miles southeast of Warrensburg; Frank, deceased, who married Lucy Whorton, now the wife of Edward Houx, of Center View; Rosalie, wife of Dr. Wesley Bolton, a graduate of St. Joseph (Mo.) Medical College, and now a resident of Siloam Springs, Ark.; May, wife of J. O. McBride, a druggist of Warrensburg; and Annie E., Mrs. Harry Leary also a resident of Siloam Spring, Ark. Lee F. graduated at the St. Louis Medical College, and later located in Center View, this county, where he practiced until his death. William, who is a master engineer of Kansas City, attends to the erection of steam machinery.

On reaching his majority, C. J. Rucker left home to make his own livelihood, and for three years was employed by farmers in Greene County, Ohio. Later he bought and improved a farm of twenty-seven acres, paying therefor $75 per acre. He built a house, in which he continued to live for a short time and then sold out. January 13, 1883, he emigrated westward, joining his brother, who had come to the vicinity of Warrensburg about six months previously. In March following their father came here with his family, and our subject lived with him until his marriage. For two years after that event he conducted a farm about a mile and a-half southeast of Warrensburg, after which he moved to a tract of forty acres twelve miles south of that city. Subsequently he came to what is known as the Pratt Farm, buying a portion of his present possessions, which comprise two hundred and fifty-five acres.

March 18, 1885, Mr. Rucker and Sadie E. Drummond were united in marriage. The lady was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, February 16, 1858. She is one of eight children, whose parents were Samuel and Sarah (Tingle) Drummond, those beside herself being Albert, who married Eliza Day, and now lives in Warrensburg; Theodore, who also lives in that city, and who married Georgia Gilliland, since deceased; Rowena, wife of Ezra Davies, a hardware merchant of Fayetteville, Ark.; Rhoda, Mrs. Richard Fickas, of San Diego, Cal.; Joseph H., who is in the real-estate business in Aransas Pass, Tex.; William, of Los Angeles County, Cal.; and Edward, a civil engineer of San Diego, Cal. The father of these children was a cabinet-maker by trade, but after removing to Missouri, in 1867, gave his time to the management of his farm south of Warrensburg, where he died in July, 1878. His wife survived him until November, 1890.

Three children have come to bless the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Rucker, namely: Pearl, born February 6, 1886; Grace, September 3, 1887; and Mabel, November 16, 1889. Our subject and his wife are not members of any church organization, but contribute of their means to benevolent and religious purposes, and are interested in whatever tends to upbuild mankind.