TUCKER, PLACER (PETE) AND LENORA (MORROW)

by Marvin Tucker

Entry F428 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

Placer and Lenora Tucker

                  1886-1946

Placer Tucker was born October 4, 1886 in
a dugout on the Dismal River. The eldest son
of Chauncey and Nancy (Keith) Tucker.

Placer spent his entire life in Hooker
County taking over the Tucker Ranch after
the death of his parents Chauncey and Nancy
Tucker in 1903. The ranch only comprised of
two sections of deeded land. But twenty
sections of Government land was fenced and
used. By orders of the Federal Land office the
fence had to be removed as the land was open
to settler's under the Kincaid Act of 1904.
Some of the land was redeemed by members
of the family as those who could qualify filed
on a kincaid and each was granted 640 acres.
In those days the only land necessary to own
was land with water and hay. But the Kincaid
Law changed this so that all land in the future
would have to be owned.

The original cattle on the Tucker Ranch
were mostly of shorthorn breeding. Placer
Tucker felt that hereford cattle would do
better on the Sandhill range. In 1905 he
purchased seven registered hereford bulls
from C.S. Hawk of Hay Springs, Nebraska.
These may have been the first purebred
registered hereford bulls used in Hooker
County. In a few years the cattle on the
Tucker Ranch were mostly hereford and
continue to be to the present time.

Placer Tucker was married to Lenora
Morrow in 1909. Five children were born to
Placer and Lenora. Two girls died at a young
age and were buried in the Eclipse Cemetery.
Three of the children grew to maturity. They
were: Doris (Tucker) Foster 1910-1981; Mar-
vin Tucker 1914- ; Iva (Tucker) Harding
1916-1975. Placer Tucker was a good cowman
and dedicated his entire life to his family and
the improvement of hereford cattle. The
hereford tradition continued through the
management of the ranch by Marvin Tucker
and now under the capable management of
Marvin's son Jack and his son John. John
Tucker is the fifth generation of the Chaun-
cey Tucker family on the Tucker Ranch
covering a period of over 100 years.