Ingraham-Tucker Collection

Collection

Identifier: A-0330

Staff Only

Content Description

The bulk of the collection consists of letters between Francis H. Tucker ("Hal") and his wife Elcee Rosina Ingraham Tucker ("Rosa"); and Ingraham family land records and tax statements for property in Angelina and Cherokee counties. There are also a few letters from family, friends, and business associates. Other materials in the collection include telegrams, wedding invitations, and a locket of Rosa Tucker's hair in one of her letters to her husband.

Dates

Creation: 1887-1935

Language of Materials

The collection is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical / Historical

Francis Harrison Tucker “Hal” (1869-1941) married Elcee Rosina Ingraham (1874-1908) in Nacogdoches on Valentine’s Day, 1899. The 1900 Census shows the newlyweds living in Nacogdoches and boarding John and Minta Garrison. The couple and their friends affectionately referred to them as “Hal” and “Rosa”. They had three children live to adulthood; Francis Ingraham Tucker (nickname “Tucker Boy”) (1900-1973), Elizabeth Rosa Tucker (1902-1987) and Edward Blount Tucker (1905-1972). In 1908, the family suffered a devastating loss when Elcee “Rosa” Tucker and their new daughter Rosa Tucker passed away from birth complications.

In the aftermath of these deaths, the 1910 Census shows Francis H. Tucker and his children boarding at his brother Felix Tucker’s house. A year later, however, Francis remarried to Laura Day (1876-1950). They would stay together until Tucker passed away in 1941. The whole family is buried in Nacogdoches at Oak Grove Cemetery.

The 1900 census and letterhead in the collection show that Francis H. Tucker was a partner in the Nacogdoches mercantile firm of Tucker, Zeve and Co. At some point between 1900 and 1910, Francis divested from the store and because a bank cashier, first at Angelina County National Bank and then at Commercial State Bank in Nacogdoches. He remained in this position through the at least the early 1920s. The 1930 Census lists Tucker as the Vice-President of Commercial National Bank. He was still a bank executive a decade later in the 1940 Census.

Biographical note written by Kyle Ainsworth and paraphrases information from the collection, the 1900-1940 United States Federal Censuses; Find-A-Grave entries for Francis Harrison Tucker, Elcee Rosina Tucker and Laura Day Tucker; and Emily Griffith Roberts, Ancestral Study of Four Families: Roberts, Griffith, Cartwright and Simpson (Dallas: Regional Press, 1939), 120.

Extent

0.50 Cubic Feet

Additional Description

Arrangement

This collection consists of 191 items described in 17 folders and housed with other collections in a banker's box. It is organized at the folder level.