Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920
Biography of Mary Ellen Tucker, 1846-1925
By Clara Pham, Student, University of California, San Diego
Mary Ellen Moore was born on January 22, 1846, in Loudon, NH to physician Dr. David Fifield Moore and Susan Francis Clifford. According to the 1900 US Federal Census, at the age of twenty-four, Mary wed Dr. Henry Tucker, also a physician, on October 25, 1870, in New Hampshire. At the time of this record, Mary and Henry had two children: a son, Edwin Moore Tucker, born on November 26, 1872, and a daughter, Marguerite Evelyn Tucker, born on August 28, 1875. In the 1880 US Federal Census, Mary Tucker was listed to have the occupation of a housewife. Her known residences were Loudon, New Hampshire, from 1846-1850, Belknap, New Hampshire, from 1860-1870, Brattleboro, Vermont, from 1875-1880, Lakeport, New Hampshire, in 1893, Lake Village, New Hampshire in 1900, and back to Brattleboro, Vermont in 1910.
Mary Tucker was an active proponent of the suffrage movement. She was recorded to have been a subscriber in 1900 to the Woman's Journal, an American weekly suffragist periodical "to address a broad segment of middle-class female society interested in women's rights." In 1888, Mary was elected as President of the Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association. Mary was in office until 1892, when she had to resign due to the move of her family to Lake Village, NH. The reason for the move was Dr. Henry Tucker's decision to get into the textile business like his father. He became the vice president of the Halifax Mills Co., which manufactured woolen hosiery. In the Annual Meeting minutes of the Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association, Mary Tucker is noted to have given lectures, led prayers, and conducted praise services while acting as President of the association. She was praised by her fellow VWSA members as "an efficient helper" and "highly esteemed President," Mary's resignation from President of the Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association was "the one dark cloud that has seemed to have 'no bright lining.'" From her addresses at the annual meetings, Mary Tucker can be seen as well-educated and a proponent for voting and property rights for women. After her resignation, Tucker was still involved in the Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association as her letters were read at the Annual Meeting in 1892.
Mary Tucker passed away in Franklin, New Hampshire, on May 30, 1925, and is buried in Laconia, NH with her husband, parents, and son.
Sources:
Ancestry.com. "1850 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1850; Census Place: Loudon, Merrimack, New Hampshire; Roll: 436; Page: 5b
Ancestry.com. "1860 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1860; Census Place: Gilmanton, Belknap, New Hampshire; Page: 261
Ancestry.com. "1870 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1870; Census Place: Gilford, Belknap, New Hampshire; Roll: M593_836; Page: 83B
Ancestry.com. "1880 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1880; Census Place: Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont; Roll: 1349; Page: 321C; Enumeration District: 224
Ancestry.com. "1900 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2004. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1900; Census Place: Laconia, Belknap, New Hampshire; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1240944
Ancestry.com. "1910 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2006. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1910; Census Place: Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont; Roll: T624_1618; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0245; FHL microfilm: 1375631
Ancestry.com. "1920 United States Federal Census." Ancestry. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. https://www.ancestry.com/. Year: 1920; Census Place: Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont; Roll: T625_1876; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 110
National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books (152 Vols.). Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2000.
Ancestry.com. "U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current." Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Ancestry.com. "U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-1999," Newspapers.com. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020.
Ancestry.com. "U.S., Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-Current." Newpapers.com. Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2019.
The Vermont Tribune. "Newspapers.com - The Vermont Tribune - 1 Apr 1927 - Page 3." Newpapers.com, April 1, 1927. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/77878836/obituary-for-henry-tucker-aged-83/?xid=637.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Records: Subject File, 1851-1953; Woman's Journal; Subscription list; 1893, Apr.-1894, Sept.
Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association. Minutes of the Fifth Annual Meeting of Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association, Held in Opera Hall, Barre, Vt., Wednesday Evening and Thursday, Feb. 13 and 14, 1889. Brattleboro, Vermont: Press of Frank E. Housh and Co., 1889.
Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association. Minutes of the Eighth Annual Meeting of Vermont Woman's Suffrage Association, Held in Baptist Church, Sutton, Vermont, Thursday Evening and Friday, June 9 and 10, 1892. Jericho, Vermont: Roscoe Printing House, 1892.