Grace Lodema Tucker (1871-1943) wife of Herbert Hooker

The Tucker family history goes back many, many years in England and Wales. It is possible that the family came to the British Isle with the Norman invasion.

Ephraim Tucker wrote a book about the Tucker family in 1895. Ephraim Tucker and Grace Lodema Tucker share one common ancestor: Robert Tucker, born in 1604. Ephraim traces his ancestry back to one of Robert’s sons, Grace can trace her back to another son. Ephraim was primarily interested in the various land transactions and the family tree with little information about the people and their lives. His account gives is little real information about the Tucker line who married into the Hooker family.

Robert Tucker 1604-1682 immigrated about 1635 together with his wife, Elizabeth Allen. They settled in Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.

Robert ye sonne of George Tucker Gent one of the Burghers at this font was
baptized ye VII of June

Church record 1604

Apparently he held a number of religious and civic positions in the various towns where he lived in Massachusetts. However, he was not above the occasional misdeed. The story:

Robert Tucker died March 11th, 1682 and he was buried 2 days later.

The next Tucker was the son of Benjamin, Ephraim, born in 1677.

He died in 1759. The inventory of his belongings when he died makes for interesting reading. He owned 2 wool shirts and 14 wooden plates, among other things.

Priscilla Pike, 1681

This Ephraim was married to Priscilla Pike, born 1681. It has not been possible to trace Priscilla’s roots. It is quite likely, however, that she was the descendant of either Robert Pike born 1601 or his brother John born 1613.

Robert immigrated to Massachusetts about 1635 with his father and 4 siblings. click to see more.

Wikipedia has an interesting article about Robert citing his opposition to witch hunting and his defense of Quakers persecuted by the Puritans. He is famous for proclaiming that it is better that one guilty man go free than that the innocent are unjustly punished.

John had an equally colorful, if not so honorable past but is best known for his descendants. Click to read more.

John and his son, James, were convicted of receiving stolen goods. Apparently they never served a prison sentence and were later cleared of the charge by an act of the New Jersey state senate. Whether they were guilty or not is a moot question.

The most famous descendant of John Pike is certainly Zebulon Pike, after whom Pikes Peak Colorado is named

Ephraim Tucker and Pricilla Pike had a son named Ephraim born in 1722. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He married Abigail Lincoln, a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln. They, in turn, sired yet another Ephraim born in 1784. He married Sarah Sally Skinner born 1787. Ephraim moved from Massachusetts to New York and he died in New York, in Oneida County in 1873. There is not a lot of information about these 2 Tucker gentlemen but this except from a genealogy of the Chandler family provides some corroborating evidence:

Daniel was the son of Ephraim and Sarah Skinner Tucker. He married Sabra Venelia Philips and they were the parents of Grace Lodema Tucker.

The Maine had been sunk only 6 months before Daniel wrote this in his granddaughter’s autograph book. Can anyone read the last word on the second line? ‘… Watch out and not miss the ????? Could it be train?

Daniel and his wife, Sabra Venelia Philips appear on the 1855 Census for Hampton, Washington New York. By 1860 Daniel and Venelia have relocated to Shelby, Macomb County Michigan and in 1864 Daniel volunteered to fight for the Union in the Civil War.

The Michigan Census for 1900 shows the Daniel Tucker family as farming in Shelby and living in the next household is Grace with her husband Herbert and their 3 children:

Venelia died in 1906 and Daniel in 1909

Grace and Herbert Hooker married in 1889. They had 3 children. She was granted a divorce before 1920 on the grounds of extreme cruelty which was most likely one of the very few reasons for divorce. In 1920 she remarried. His name was Morten Fox, a widower. They married in Niagra Falls on the Canadian side and she declared herself a widow: