Henry Crawford Tucker's Georgia Migrations

Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr. was my sister-in-law's five times great grandfather.  There is a passionate debate about this family, which I blogged about previously. If you believe as I do, Henry, Sr., was from Southampton, Virginia, and the son of Benjamin Tucker (1704-1778). After his father died, Henry and his brothers sold the Southampton plantation. The brothers removed to North Carolina where Henry met married Sarah "Sallie" Hunter in Chatham County sometime before moving to Georgia, where their eldest son was born in 1790. Georgia was offering land grants to Revolutionary War veterans in an effort to attract more people to the former British colony.

Burke County, Georgia; courtesy of Rootsweb

Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr., was listed on the Burke County tax list in 1790. Five years later, he lived in Montgomery County, which had been created from Washington County and before that was Creek Indian land. In 1805, Henry, Sr., participated in a land lottery and was awarded 202-1/2 acres in recently formed Wilkinson County. In 1826, Henry, Sr. moved south again to newly formed Lowndes County. He and his wife, Sarah, were founding members of Bethel Primitive Baptist Church.

Bethel Primitive Baptist Church Historical marker (now in Brooks County);
courtesy of the Georgia Historical Society

Bethel Primitive Baptist Church
Bethel Primitive Baptis Church, the second Baptist Church to be organized in the area of old Lowndes County, was constituted September 2, 1826. The organizing Presbytery were Elders: Benjamin Manning, Matthew Albritton and Henry Melton, with Deacon William A. Knight. Charters members of Bethel Church were: Elder Melus Thigpen and his wife, Sarah; Archibald Strickland and his wife, Luander; Henry C. Tucker and his wife, Sarah.
Elder Thigpen served as supply pastor until 1828, when the Rev. Matthew Albritton was called to the charge of Bethel Church.

Georgia migrations of Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr.; map courtesy of Rootsweb

Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr., died sometime after 1832 when he submitted an affidavit in a Leon County, Florida, court to support a Revolutionary War pension application, which was rejected by the federal government. It is not known when or where he died, but he may have been interred at Bridge Creek Cemetery in Colquitt County, which was formed from Lowndes County in 1856. If so, the grave is unmarked. There is also a headstone in the Purvis Family Cemetery in Berrien County, Georgia, where Henry's son Richard M. Tucker was interred, which listed Richard's brothers as: John (1785-1853), Davis (1798-post 1880), Thomas (1803-post 1880), Henry Crafford, Jr. (1805-1886), Elisha (1808-post 1880), and Elijah (1809-1858).  I believe he also had two sisters: Nancy and Barbara -- all children of Henry Crawford Tucker, Sr. and Sarah "Sallie" Hunter.

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Confusing Tuckers of Wiregrass Georgia