Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/629

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 567 bate judge for Stoddard county, has won pres- tige as an attorney-at-law and has been an im- portant factor in i^roinoting the highest inter- ests of town and county, his influence having been especially marked in educational affairs. He was born January 31, 1871, in Shelby county, Indiana, and was educated, princi- pally, in Ohio, completing his eai-ly studies at the National Normal University at Lebanon and taking a special course under Professor Albert Holbrook, a noted educator. Mr. Tucker subsecjuently taught school three j'ears in Indiana, from there coming, in April, 1895, to Stoddard county, Missouri, where he continued his pedagogical labors for five years, teaching first at Advance, then at Idalia, and later being for two years princi- pal of the Bloomfield Public School. He was really the founder of the Bloomfield High School as it now stands, having systematized the course of study, introduced new methods, and having secured as its first superintendent one of his classmates in the Ohio Normal Uni- versity, Professor I. H. Hughes, an able and progressive teacher, who did much to elevate the standard of the school, placing it on a high plane of achievement. While teaching Mr. Tucker began reading law, and after his admission to the Missouri bar, in 1900, was associated with the well known Judge Thomas Connellcy. He made a specialty of laws relating to real estate and land titles, becoming an authority on lands and on drainage, and for ten years carried on a fine civil practice. Being elected judge of probate, ilr. Tucker assumed the duties of his office on January 1, 1911, and is performing them with characteristic ability and fidelity. Politically Mr. Tucker is prominent in the Democratic ranks, and in addition to being aetive in campaign work has served as a dele- gate to judicial, congressional and state con- ventions. He has rendered efficient service both on the local school board and in the city council. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of the Modern Woodmen of America; and of the Knights of Pythias, in which he is especially aetive in lodge work. Mr. Tucker married, in Bloomfield, in 1897, Minnie Cone, a successful school teacher ancl a half-sister of Ralph Wammack. Mr. and ]Irs. Tucker have five children living, namely : Vivian, Kent, Ralph, William L. and Evange- line. Mrs. Tucker is a woman of culture and refinement, and a consistent member of the Baptist church. Hon. James L. Fort. Bringing to the practice of his profession a well trained mind and habits of industry, which have won for him genuine success, Judge James L. Fort, of Dexter, for twelve years judge of the Twenty-second judicial circuit, took his seat upon the bench exceptionally well ecjuipped for its duties, not only by scholarship and ability, but by natural gifts and temper- ament, and his wise decisions in various cases of importance have had a permanent bear- ing upon the development of Southeastern ilissouri. A native of Illinois, Judge Fort was born February 18, 1854, in Johnson county, where he received his rudimentary education. Judge Fort comes of a family whose tradi- tions date back to the early history of Vir- ginia and Maryland. According to the tales handed down from father to son the family was founded in this country by three brothers who came over from Ireland and settled in these two states. The paternal great-grand- father of Judge Fort was a native of Vir- ginia, who had crossed the mountains and set- tled in Kentucky as a planter at a very early day. He settled in Christian county, and there his son Garrie was born. Garrie Fort be- came a planter and spent the whole of his life in Kentucky, though he never became very prosperous. He married Miss Condor, and died during middle age, while his wife survived him many years, dying at the age of seventy- five. The father of Judge Fort was ilears P. Fort and was born in Christian county, Kentucky. There he was reared and there he married, removing to Johnson county, Illi- nois, in 1853. He became a farmer, and pur- sued that occupation up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1882, when he was fifty-eight years of age. His wife was Anna Hester, who was a native of Virginia. Her father was James Hester, and her mother's maiden name was Keaton. Both of them were natives of Virginia, and they removed to Kentucky in 1837. There, in Trigg county, they settled, and the husband became a planter. Mrs. Fort and her husband were the parents of twelve children, five of whom are living today. She lived to be seventy- four years old, dying in 1898. Migrating to Stoddard county. ^Missouri, in February, 1880, James L. Fort taught school during the long winter seasons, and worked on the farm during seed time and harvest, for four years. In 1884 he began reading law, and in 1886, soon after his admission to the