Well established in the successful practice of his profession in the thriving town of Hohenwald, Dr. William Barnabas Tucker is numbered among the representative physicians of Lewis County and prior to his locating at Hohenwald in 1907, was one of the best known members of the medical profession in the adjoining county of Perry, where he was a medical practitioner thirty-four years. He is a scion of one of the old pioneer families of this commonwealth, one that was established here very shortly after Tennessee was admitted to statehood and whose members in the interim of a century or more have always been identified with the most worthy order of citizenship in this state.
A native of Perry County, Tennessee, William Barnabas Tucker was born near Linden, December 13, 1852, a son of Robert P. Tucker. The latter also was a native of Perry County, where he was born in 1818. Joseph Tucker, father of Robert P., was the founder of the family in Tennessee and came to this state in 1799 from North Carolina, where he was born in 1769, and where he was subsequently married to a Miss Glass. On coming to Tennessee he located in Perry County, where he spent the remainder of his life in the vocation of a farmer, passing away there in 1873. He helped General Jackson demonstrate the order of American soldiery at the battle of New Orleans in 1815 and sustained a severe wound in that engagement with the British. Of the eight children of his family, Robert was the third in birth. After receiving a common school education, Robert also became a tiller of the soil and followed agricultural pursuits very successfully throughout his life. In political sentiment he was a staunch Democrat and in a fraternal way he was affiliated with the Masonic order. His death occurred in 1870. He was married in Perry County, Tennessee, to Mary A. Peach, who was born in Williamson County, this state, in 1826 and is yet living. Two children were born to these parents: Dr. Tucker, of this review and John R. Tucker, now living in Perry County.
Dr. Tucker was educated in Perry County Public Schools and in the medical department of the University of Nashville and of the University of Tennessee, attending the former institution two terms and the latter one term. He took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in each, in the University of Tennessee, receiving again the degree the M. D. In fact, throughout his whole medical career, Dr. Tucker has kept abreast with every advance made in the science and practice of medicine and while no longer representing the younger generation of the profession, he retains the keenest interest in the discoveries and progress of this science and has besides the invaluable knowledge gained from his own long experience. He began the practice of medicine at Linden, Perry County in 1873 and continued there thirty-four years, or until 1907, when he changed his location to Hohenwald, Lewis County. He is a general practitioner and while located in Perry County was a member of the Perry County Medical Society. He has always been more or less interested in agriculture and still owns a farm. Politically he is an adherent of the Democratic Party.
In 1876, Dr. Tucker was married to Miss Louisa Jane Beasley, daughter of Beverly Beasley, of Perry County. To Dr. and Mrs. Tucker have been born four children, namely: James Thompson Tucker, now of Chicago, Illinois; Maude, who became the wife of O. J. Baars and resides in Perry County, Tennessee; Eve, who is at the home of her parents; and William Homer, now a resident of Fort Dodge, Iowa.
