Rucker, R. H.

RUCKER

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/11/2006 at 00:59:41

R. H. Rucker

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.276, York Twp.)
R. H. Rucker, farmer, P. O. Oakland, was born in Highland County, Ohio, October 27, 1835. He is the son of J. and Antoinette (Cowthon) Rucker. His father was born in Rockbridge County, Va., near the renowned Natural Bridge, in March, 1808. He moved from Virginia to Ohio, from there to Minnesota in 1855, and died in the latter State in March 1872. His (subject's) mother was born in 1809, in the same county as her husband. She is at present living in Olmstead County, Minn. Our subject received a common-school education in Ohio and Minnesota. He lived at home till he was twenty-two years of age, when he began life for himself. He hired out for five months, after which he purchased 120 acres of land for $116 in Minnesota. He was engaged in buying and selling land until the opening of the civil war. He enlisted in the Eighth Minnesota Regiment, and served three years, under Col. Thomas and Maj. Camp. He was in the engagement of Murfreesboro December 8, 1864, and at the Battle of Kingston, N.C. He was mustered out of service in the fall of 1865. He returned to Minnesota and farmed one season in that State, when he came to Buchanan County, Iowa. Here he bought and broke land, afterward selling it. He then went to Jackson County, Minn., where he acquired about five hundred acres of land. The winter of 1871-72 was unusually severe. The storms raged for days at a time. The snow, assisted by the wind, came down in blinding sheets, rendering the house invisible at a distance of ten feet. Mr. Rucker had to connect his house and barn with a rope cord, in order to find his way to and fro. The following spring, the grasshoppers carried away his entire crop, whereupon he came to Council Bluffs. In the fall of 1872, he rented a farm of Pleasant Taylor for two years. In 1877, he purchased 120 acres of his present farm, and the balance the following year. He now owns 240 acres and rents fifty acres. His specialty is corn and stock. He has eight children, the result of two marriages - John, Levi, Eugene, William, Jay, Cora Effie and Nettie - all of whom are at home. Mr. Rucker is a member of the Masonic fraternity. In politics, he is a Republican. At one time he was School Treasurer for two townships in Minnesota.

(Note: The book doesn't capitalize Civil War as we know it today. It's always been lower case in the bios I've typed.)