Jacob Wesley Tacker

 

Contributed by Ann Farnsworth

From A History of Limestone County by Ray Walker p 129

One of the first peach growers in the area was W.J. Tacker (sic). Tacker was born in 1818 in Tennessee and like many other people seeking to improve their conditions, migrated to Texas about 1850 and settled in the Tiger Prairie-Donie vicinity. Like most of the early Texans he had a seedling orchard and called his peach the white English. Little is known of the origin of the variety but it has been stated that the peach reproduced itself very closely from seed.

Frances Bowlen Bond introduced the peach to a nursery near the turn of the century and named it the Tacker seedling in honor of his father-in-law. T.E. Martin recalled that as far back as he could remember everyone in the vicinity were growing this peach. The Tacker seedling has been replaced by more popular varieties but in 1901 it was considered one of the valuable cling varieties for Texas.

Note: W.J. Tacker is most likely Jacob Wesley Tacker who was born 1818 in Giles Co. Tenn. T.E. Martin married a granddaughter of Jacob W. Tacker. Sarah Tacker, daughter of Jacob married Thomas Wingfield Bond.