Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: TAYLOR, CAMPBELL, FINLEY, CLARK, WOODS, BROWN, BOULWARE

 Among Santa Clara County's early pioneers and most  prominent men may be mentioned this gentleman, who settled in San Jose in 1852. Mr. Rucker was born in Howard County, Missouri, in 1831, his parents, William T. and Veiranda S. (Taylor) Rucker, having removed from Virginia to Missouri in 1830, soon after their marriage. As William T. was born in 1810 and his wife in 1811, they were very young to take upon themselves the cares and toils of pioneer life, as it was in Missouri at that early date. In 1832 they removed from Howard County to Saline County, took up land and commenced farming, and remained there until the spring of 1852, when the whole family crossed the plains to California, coming at once to San Jose. Mr. Rucker, Sr., was more fortunate than many others. Coming by Sublette's cut-off, north of Salt Lake City, he succeeded in bringing through a fine herd of 200 cows, with very little loss. As he had purchased these at $10 per head in Missouri, and sold them at from $150 to $200 per head upon his arrival in California, his trip was a very successful business venture. He immediately bought 160 acres of land about two
miles southwest of the town of Santa Clara and commenced farming. In the winter of 1852-53 seed wheat was eight cents per pound, and seed potatoes five cents per pound. However, Mr. Rucker's first crop yielded fifty bushels to the acre; so it is to be presumed his farming was something of a repetition of his cattle speculation. Only one son was tempted to try his fortune in the gold mines, remaining there five years, and then returning to the home in Santa Clara, preferring to dig his fortune from the richness of the Santa Clara Valley soil rather than the precarious gold mines.

Eleven children had been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rucker, Sr.: Joseph E., the subject of this sketch; Mary L., now the wife of Benjamin Campbell, of Campbell's Station; John S., living on his ranch near Gilroy; W. D. and R. T., farmers near Santa Clara; Dr. H. N., a prominent physician of Merced City, and Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of California; S. T., a farmer at Lompoc, Santa Barbara County; Nancy C., wife of J. P. Finley, present manager of the Pacific Manufacturing Company's branch office in Oregon; George F., farmer in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County; Margaret E., wife of J. W. Clark, cattle rancher in Mariposa County, and B. W., now in the real-estate business with J. E. Rucker & Son, in San Jose. It will be seen that the sons remained loyal to Mother Earth, as nearly all are farmers or dealers in lands. William T. Rucker died in Santa
Clara in 1880; his wife is still living.


Joseph E. Rucker, the subject of this sketch, took up a claim of eighty acres of land in 1853, farming it until 1855, when he sold it, bought a dairy farm on the Pajaro River, near Gilroy, and commenced keeping a dairy. In 1858 he sold his dairy and bought 232 acres, part of the Solis Ranch, where he remained until the fall of 1864. At this time he sold his last ranch, bought ten acres in the Willows adjoining the city of San Jose, and went into the real-estate business, in which he has remained since. During all this time Mr. Rucker has owned, cultivated, and sold various large ranches in different parts of the State. He now owns a 250-acre ranch, near Hollister, which he has cultivated on shares, in grain, vegetables, etc.

Mr. Rucker was married, in the fall of 1855, to Miss Susan Brown, a native of Holt County, Missouri, who had come to California in 1850 with her parents, Samuel, and Susan (Woods) Brown. Mrs. Rucker's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, were early pioneers of Missouri, having removed thither from Kentucky in 1852.

Seven children were born to Joseph E. Rucker and wife: W. B., born in 1857, now Deputy County Clerk and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of this county; Mary E., born in 1859, wife of M. A. Boulware, of San Jose; James T. and Samuel N. (twins), born in 1862, who own a carpet store in San Jose; Samuel was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1887; Joseph H., born in 1865, now junior member of the firm of Rucker & Son; Susie, born in 1867, a teacher in San Jose; and Lucy M., born in 1869, an able assistant in the real-estate office of Rucker & Son.

Mr. Rucker has gone through all the grades of the Masonic order, being now a Knight Templar. He is a member of San Jose Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. M.; Howard Royal Arch Chapter, No. 14, and San Jose Chapter, No. 31, Order of the Eastern Star.

In national politics Mr. Rucker has always supported the Democratic party, but in local matters believes in supporting the best men, regardless of
political bias, and is a stanch advocate of the protection of American industries. He has been an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since he was eighteen years of age, and was the first unmarried man to unite with this church in the Santa Clara Valley.Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.

Pg. 605-606

    SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT

SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight