Tucker, Joshua Thomas (1812–97), from 1840 to 1846 the pastor of Hannibal’s First Presbyterian Church, was born in Massachusetts and educated at Yale College and Lane Theological Seminary (Walnut Hills, Ohio). Jane and Pamela Clemens joined the church in February 1841, at which time Samuel Clemens probably left the Methodist Sunday school and began attending the Presbyterian Sunday school instead. In 1847 Tucker moved to St. Louis, where he worked as an editor. He was pastor of Congregational churches in Holliston, Massachusetts, from 1849 to 1867, and Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, from 1867 to 1877. Clemens mentions Tucker in “Villagers” (97), and in “Hellfire Hotchkiss” (109–10, 112) evidently modeled Mr. Rucker after him (“Recent Deaths,” Boston Evening Transcript, 12 June 97, 7; “The Rev. Dr. Joshua T. Tucker,” New York Times, 12 June 97, 7; Tucker, 211–12; Fotheringham, 104–6; Sweets 1984, 4, 6, 17, 51).
