52 Ancestors - FATHER'S DAY: Walter Rucker and Son

With Father’s Day approaching, we reflect on the importance of our fathers. A good father is the best gift a child can receive. A father’s affection and support of our activities and our dreams help build our confidence and independence. We want to make Dad proud. Social media floods us with nostalgic images of father and son fishing or enjoying a game of catch. However, that image quickly fades after reading the numerous news stories about my grandmother’s cousin Frank and his father Walter Newman Rucker.

It was 1916. Frank was just a teenager about 15 or 16. He was one of ten children born to Walter Newman Rucker and his wife Ada Eppard. That year, Frank’s bachelor uncle Charley Eppard was living with them in Shenandoah, Virginia. Living with various relatives over the years, Charley managed to save a lot of money which he kept in a trunk. That money must have been just too tempting for young Frank Rucker.

He stole it. 

STOLEN GOODS

from Harrisonburg
Daily News Record 28 Mar 1916

According to news reports – and there were lots of them – Frank took around $600 which included 7 twenty-dollar gold coins. He was caught when A. A. Moore, a 23-year old brakeman for the railroad, was arrested on a charge of receiving money that he knew had been stolen. 

The prosecution argued that Moore helped Frank and his friends Jacob Rothgeb and Martin Luther Kite spend much of the money on a trip to Harrisonburg. Moore made purchases with the gold pieces at both Toppin’s Saloon and at Frazier & Slater’s store.

ads in the Daily News Record

The defense responded by saying Frank told Moore that he FOUND the money and there was “more where that came from.” Moore emphasized that he gained nothing from the money since the purchases of a suitcase and two suits of clothing were for Frank and that he gave all the change back to Frank as well. The prosecution maintained that any prudent man could look at the circumstances and just KNOW that the money had been stolen.

AND THE JURY SAYS …

The trial ended in a hung jury, so the judge set another court date. 

from Daily News Record
7 Apr 1916

News reporters covered the case like it was the trial of the century. Spectators filled the court room.

Daily News Record 6 Jun 1916 

Among the material witnesses to be called were Frank’s buddies Jacob Rothgeb and Martin Luther Kite. Both failed to show up. Kite was soon arrested in Maryland where supposedly he had gone to obtain work. As for Rothgeb, the counsel for the defense claimed Frank’s father Walter Rucker had threatened him and that is why he failed to appear.

Walter’s behavior was key to the defense counsel’s strategy. He brought in witness after witness who testified that both Walter and Frank had bad reputations when it came to truthfulness.

Impeaching the prosecution’s witnesses must have worked because the second trial ended in acquittal for A. A. Moore.

headlines - Daily News Record
10 Jun 1916

Walter must not have been too happy about the verdict. He was quoted in the newspaper saying he wanted “to put the stripes on Moore.” 

REFORM SCHOOL

For the theft, Frank was sent to the Laural Industrial School, a juvenile correctional center north of Richmond, instead of prison. Surely Walter was glad of that.

photo by Calder Loth 2021 at DHR.virginia.gov

The Laurel Industrial School was a privately owned and administered institution established in 1892 as a model boys’ reformatory. With its mission to reform the treatment of juvenile offenders, the school housed about 300 boys. They attended classes and worked either in the shops or on the farm. Today the main building is on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register.

A SAD END

Harrisonburg Daily News Record
26 Nov 1935

The next time Frank’s name appeared in the newspaper, it was in the social columns of 1929 when he and his bride, the former Myrtle Higgs, attended dinners and parties at the homes of Myrtle’s relatives.

In 1935 they moved to Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, Maryland, where Frank had obtained a job with Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Having grown up in a railroad town, having been raised by a father and uncles who worked for the railroad, and having earned his own living as a brakeman for the railroad, it seems unthinkable that Frank would have stepped between rails and been hit by a railroad car.

 

NATURE OR NURTURE

I can’t help wondering what forces were at work when Frank took his uncle’s money. Was it just an act of a teenager lacking good sense? Did he think his uncle would not notice? Or was he just a bad seed? Was Walter just as culpable for wishing harm to the others? Or was he merely a dad standing by his boy? Unfortunately, Frank Rucker died too soon leaving no children behind to tell a different tale or to wish him Happy Father's Day.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2021, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

52 Ancestors - TRICK OR TREAT: Those Pesky Ruckers

One of the TREATs of blogging is connecting with distant cousins and potential cousins. This past week I received two emails from Rucker descendants looking for more information. That was just the kick in the pants I needed to get back on my Rucker research.

DAR marker for Angus Rucker
photo courtesy Brian Gallagher
Rucker-Hoffman Cemetery, Madison Co, VA

Some time ago I was TRICKed into thinking my oldest known-for-sure Rucker ancestor was a descendant of Revolutionary War patriot Captain Angus Rucker of Madison County, Virginia. I had been advised by a well-respected Rucker researcher and then-president of the Rucker Family Society to prove that John Frank Rucker was son of Angus. Conventional wisdom was that he was son of Jarvis Rucker, not Angus.

It did not take long to discover that John Frank’s children named some of their own children “Angus.” Surely they were honoring their grandfather Angus Rucker. So it seemed a done-deal that John Frank was son of Angus. Even Daughters of the American Revolution agree; several women have joined this lineage society as direct descendants of Angus Rucker through his son John Frank.

I was lulled into thinking my known great-great-grandfather Frank Rucker was son of John Frank. I mean, after all, look at the name – Frank.

But not so fast.

John Frank Rucker died intestate in 1839. An abstract appears in the Rockingham County Guardian Bonds book: 15 July 1839, Parent, John F. Rucker; Orphans, Onslow, Angeline, and Eliza; Guardian Jared Powell, Bond was $2,000, bondsmen, John Cook and Honorias Powell. 

A daughter Sarah Jane had married James Frazier the year before and thus was out of the house and not in need of a guardian. It made sense to me that Frank likewise was of legal age and not in need of a guardian. I have lived with that thought several years.

Try as I might to ignore the numerous documents that refer to John Frank’s “four orphans,” now I am pretty sure Frank was not son of John Frank. The nail in that coffin was delivered by a chancery cause of 1857 in which Asa Baugher, administrator of the estate of Onslow Rucker, represented his wife Eliza Rucker and her sister Angeline Rucker Roach in a suit against their guardian Jared Powell. While details of the land dispute and proper accounting of how Jared Powell carried out his duties as guardian are interesting to ME, the clincher is this one sentence:

From Chancery Cause Rockingham Co, VA 1857
Adm Onslow Rucker vs Jared Powell

The heirs at law of Onslow Rucker are Mary Rucker, his mother, Jane Frazier wife of James Frazier, Angeline Roach wife of Mickleberry Roach, & Eliza Baugher wife of this complainant.

Frank Rucker was very much alive in 1857, so had he been an heir of Onslow Rucker, he would have been listed in that sentence.

At this point I cannot connect Frank to ANY Rucker male. I have my doubts about whether Frank connects to Jarvis, which is the standard view. Jarvis was from Culpeper County and died in neighboring Madison County. If the death certificate of my great-grandfather Joseph Calhoun Rucker can be believed, his father Frank was born in Amherst County.

Amherst County research will be something new for me. But maybe determining Frank’s parents will turn out to be a TREAT. After all, there were only 10 Rucker families listed in the 1830 census for Amherst County, and only 2 of them had a son born about 1824. Let the search begin again.

Amy Johnson Crow continues to challenge genealogy bloggers and non-bloggers alike to think about our ancestors and share a story or photo about them. The challenge is “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.”

Wendy

© 2019, Wendy Mathias. All rights reserved.

Sepia Saturday: The Butcher of Shenandoah

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday photo is of a handsome display of hanging meat and the proud butchers who were responsible. If my great-great grandfather Frank Rucker and his son Robert E. Rucker ever posed for such a picture, I have nothing to prove it. However, between the two of them, they butchered for the citizens of Shenandoah in Page County, Virginia for 70 years.

from 1870 Rockingham County, Virginia Federal Census

In 1870, Frank Rucker was enumerated in the Rockingham County census as a Shoemaker. That same year William Milnes, Jr., one of the principal landowners and developers of the young town of Shenandoah in neighboring Page County, convinced Frank to open a meat shop. That is why in 1880 he was listed in the census as a “Butcherer.” I suppose it was a logical progression.

from 1880 Rockingham County, Virginia Federal Census

When Frank died in November of 1890, Robert may or may not have stepped in right away to fill his father’s shoes.

                                          However, by 1900 when this photo was taken, the Rucker Meat Shop was a thriving business.

Side view of Rucker Meat Shop in the early 1900s
from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

When the store building was torn down in 1920, Robert moved the shop to his home on Third Street. “Uncle Bob” was often seen in his bloody apron with knife in hand. My maternal grandmother often recalled how he used to swing that knife and chase kids around the yard just to scare them. He thought it was funny.

"Uncle Bob" Rucker in his trademark bloody apron
(1863-1951)

Maybe the people in town thought so too. In Bob’s obituary he is remembered fondly as “cheerful and lovable.”

from the obituary of Robert E. Rucker

However, this description is nothing like the memories of at least two members of the “Remember Shenandoah” group on Facebook. One woman wrote that she was always afraid to walk past his house on her way to visit her grandparents because she always saw him with a big knife and a bloody apron. Another reported that her family’s dog was found dead behind the meat shop and that Bob Rucker “never denied” killing it. Hmm ~

I like to think “lovable” Uncle Bob would not have killed a dog. Let’s hope he limited himself to cows and pigs.

I’m sorry if I butchered this story. You might find choice cuts and prime photos at Sepia Saturday.

© 2015, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.

Surname Saturday: Rucker

Surname Saturday is a daily prompt at Geneabloggers to focus on a particular name, its origin, its geographic location, and how it fits into one’s research.

Anyone who has any interest in Rucker genealogy knows Peter, maybe the first Rucker on Virginia soil, the Godfather of the clan.   His story is part fact and part legend filled with amazing stories of surviving a shipwreck off the coast of Virginia by tying himself to a keg of rum. 

What researchers are sure of is that Peter, traveling with some French Huguenots, arrived in Virginia about 1700.  His application for naturalization was approved in 1704 (the law required a 4-year residency for non-British subjects).  Peter married and settled in Essex County.  Later he moved to Spotsylvania County, where John Rucker purchased land. As population grew, new counties were carved out of Spotsylvania.  In 1793, Madison County was formed, and this is where my oldest Ruckers lived.

My most current Rucker family, my maternal grandmother’s side, lived in Rockingham and Page Counties, just across the mountain from Madison.  Searches on Ancestry result in a gazillion Ruckers in Amherst County and Botetourt County, but very few in Rockingham or Page County.  I wonder what made my family go in the opposite direction of the other Ruckers.

1885 map of land ownership in Rockingham County, VA

Frank Rucker's land is at the confluence

of the Shenandoah Riverand Naked Creek.

The fact that my definite ancestors were off by themselves is both a curse and a blessing.  Now keep in mind that it seems the goal of every Rucker descendent is to trace a straight line to Peter.  My straight line is problematic.  For sure working backwards from my grandmother it looks like this:

Lucille Rucker Davis à Joseph Calhoun Rucker à Frank Rucker à John Frank Rucker à ??

Tradition says that picking up at John Frank, the line continues to create this:

John Frank Rucker à Jarvis Rucker à William Rucker à Thomas Rucker à Peter

But more and more, the line looks like this:

John Frank Rucker à Angus Rucker à Ephraim Rucker à Peter

Why? 

Just looking at naming patterns, I see that Eliza Rucker Baugher, daughter of John Frank, named one of her children Angus.  The name Angus was also given to a grandson.  There are no children in my family named Jarvis.  Another “coincidence” is that Frank named a son George Allen.  Angus had a son named George Allen.  Connecting the dots, that means Frank probably named his son after his uncle, his father’s brother.

However, these instances are not proof of anything, and so the battle between old research and new research continues.  It will take more thorough study of wills and deeds to find that direct line back to Peter Rucker.