Tucker Building
Ocean Springs, Mississippi

It is interesting to note that the Tucker Building was owned by Jacob C. Tucker (1845-1917). Mr. Tucker was a native of Alabama and Civil War veteran. Prior to his arrival in Ocean Springs, he had made his livelihood as the railroad agent at Opdyke, Jefferson County, Illinois for over thirty years. J.C. Tucker was at Ocean Springs as early as 1905, as he was the proprietor of the Gulf Coast School of Practical Railroad Telegraphy.
(The Biloxi Daily Herald, February 3, 1905, p. 6)

In July 1907, J.C. Tucker married Ida L. Carter Horton (1878-1910+), the widow of William A. Horton (1863-ca 1907). In 1893, Ida L. Carter had married Mr. Horton, the widower of Helen Lundy (1857-1890). Helen Lundy, a Mobile native, was the sister of Frank. J. Lundy (1863-1912) and Louis A. Lundy (1876-1941), both outstanding merchants and entrepre­neurs at Ocean Springs. W.A. Horton and Helen Lundy had no children. In 1893, W.A. Horton was in the mercantile business at Ocean Springs with F.J. Lundy as Horton & Lundy.
(The Pascagoula Democrat-Star, November 14, 1890, p. 2 and
The Biloxi Herald, December 9, 1893, p. 8)

William A. Horton and Ida L. Carter in 1893 had four children:

1. Williford Horton (1894-1910+)


2. Corrine Horton (b. 1896)


3. Otis J. Horton (1897-1925+) married Eula Trepagnier (1896-1925) of New Orleans; and


4. Violet Horton (1898-1926+) married Worth W. Jones, a bank cashier, of Coushatta, Red River Parish, Louisiana.

In 1900, W.A. Horton made his livelihood at Ocean Springs as a grocer and farmer.
1900 Jackson Co., Mississippi Federal Census, T623 812, p. 3B, ED 45)

Jacob C. Tucker expired in the domicile of his daughter at Ensley, Alabama, near Birmingham in November 1917. His corporal remains were sent to Opdyke, Illinois for internment in the Opdyke Cemetery with his first spouse, Martha E. Tucker, who expired there on August 20, 1878, and an infant daughter, Mattie Tucker 1873-1874).
(The Jackson County Times, November 24, 1917, p. 5).

The Tucker Building was once the office of /The Ocean Springs News and probably the first movie house at Ocean Springs. Marion Illing Moran (1899-1993) who grew up in the cinema business at Ocean Springs with her father, Eugene W. Illing Sr. (1870-1947) and his Illing's Photo-Play Air Dome and Illings Theatre, related in an interview in 1992, that when she was at the age of five (circa 1904), that the first movie house was located on Washington Avenue, near the present day Arndt Building, now utilized as an office for the Kirk Halstead Realty. This is corroborated somewhat by an announcement in The Ocean Springs News of February 20, 1909, which related that *"S.O. Ingram will soon open a grocery and notion store formerly used as a picture show house in the Horton Building next to the news office". *On the 1909 Sanborn Insurance Map of Ocean Springs, the newspaper office is located approximately where the Arndt Building is today. It is assumed that the Horton Building later became known as the Tucker Building, when the marriage between Ida Carter Horton and J.C. Tucker had become established in the community.

(Marion Illing Moran interview with the author-September 1992 and Sanborn Insurance Map, "Ocean Springs", 1909, Sheet-2)

The Tucker Building was consumed in a fire in late February 1926 by fire.
(The Jackson County Times, February 27, 1926, p. 1)