William Haywood Tucker was born in Alabama on April 2, 1827. He and several brothers came to Shelby County, TX in 1841 where they engaged in farming. There William married Mary Ann Duncan. In 1856 he moved the family to just north of Palestine in Anderson Co, TX where he accumulated a plantation at parker's Bluff and a place at Tucker, a village named for him. He attended the National Conventions of 1856, 1860, 1872 and 1876. Although in poor health, he served in one session of the Texas House of Representatives but died shortly after the session ended in June 1883.