Title	Mr.
Last Name	Tucker
First Name	John
Middle Name
Maiden Name
Nick Name
Place of Birth	Kittery, ME
Date of Birth	1761-02-08
Place of Death	Dexter, ME
Date of Death	1847
Publication	The Eastern Gazette 8-6-1942, p.3 (LHC)
Obituary	John Tucker In 1802 John Tucker brought his family to the township, occupied the clearing he had made in 1800, built a house at a point on the south side of the road over Zion's Hill to Ripley, a little east of the residence of the late Obed Foss. The Bangor Historical Magazine for September, 1887, gives the name of John Tucker, Dexter, in the list of Revolutionary soldiers in Penobscot County. During the latter years of his life, he was eccentric and perhaps his mind became a little unbalanced on the subject of religion. His weakness was the writing of poetry in a religious vein, and, paper not being as plentiful in those days as it is now, he usually used birch bark for the purpose. He was born in Kittery, Maine, February 8, 1761, and died in Dexter in 1847. His body is buried in the field between his residence and that of the late Obed Foss, where other of the early settlers who died before a public burying-ground was provided are also buried. Near his lowly grave are also the graves of Phebe, his daughter of sixteen years, who died December 16, 1804, and the two children of his next neighbor, Ebenezer Small, Daniel aged six years, and Joseph aged four years, who both died December 19, 1804. The deaths of these three young people, the first that occurred in the township, comnig, as they did, all within three days, made a profound impression upon the little community. Among the children of John Tucker was John, Jr., who, prior to 1830, lived on the west side of Main St., opposite Liberty St., where Ebenezer Small then took up his residence; and Samuel, who lived and died on the old Tucker homestead. Samuel was born November 1, 1789, and died January 2, 1872. Among his children was Zilphia, who taught school in this town in 1833, became the wife of W. H. P. Bement, with whom she lived for many years on Spring St., and brought up a large family of children, two of whom served their country in the war for the Union: Hiram A., a member of the famous Fighting Sixth Maine regement, who died in hospital, and Walter P., who was wounded while a member of the Fourteenth Massachusetts Infantry, and afterwards became a Captain in a Massachusetts regiment of Heavy Artillary. A third son, Frank F., born November 17, 1844, tried to enlist in the Navy, but was not accepted. He was determined, however, to go to sea, and sailed his first voyage in 1861, from Boston to Sydney, from Sydney to Hong Kong, from Hong Kong to Bangkok, from Bangkok back to Hong Kong, and thence to San Francisco. For years he sailed in American vessels, but in 1983 obtained a certificate as British shipmaster, and has since sailed in command of various English steamers. He has never been weaned from his native town, however, but visits in whenever practicable, and frequently writes interesting letters to the local paper for publication. So far as I know, he is the first man born in Dexter to make a profession of seamanship. He is an able and successful shipmaster and a loyal American, although in the British Merchant Marine, and with a wife born in Cardiff, Wales, and a son who fought the Boers in South Africa. His career is a credit to the town in which he was born, and whose second settler was his maternal grandfather. His paternal grandfather, Walter Bement, came to Dexter from Great Barrington, Massachusetts in May, 1824, and bought the farm on the hill southwest of the present village of Dexter, of Joshua Berry the fiddler, as he was called, where he lived until his death in 1846 at the age of sixty-one years and six months. He deserves the thanks of succeeding generations for setting out the rows of magnificent elm trees which in our day make the old farm on which he lived so attractive. He married Miss Hobert of Solon, and reared a family consisting of William H. P., Eugene, Sarah, (she married Jonathan Green), Hiram, Caleb, (who has long resided in New York City), and Susan, (who married A. J. Williams, of Waterville.)