Harshbarger, Tucker, Stogsdill, Pulliam and a Jewel - A tangled web of families
- Dec 10, 2025
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 15
When the Stogsdill children, Myrtle, Marion, Millerd, and Essie (my grandmother Ethel's siblings) were attending school in Wilson Township, near Virgil, Oklahoma in 1918, some of their classmates were Izella and Edna Harshbarger and their half-sister Lena Dyer. Their mother Luella Harshbarger had enrolled them.
Two of these children would go from being classmates and playmates to becoming husband and wife when they reached their 20s. Do you know which ones? I don’t remember anyone ever mentioning this before. Imagine my surprise when the record popped up in my research!
On November 16, 1928, Millerd and Izella married in Choctaw County, Oklahoma. They were both 21, Millerd lived in Sawyer and Izella lived in Virgil. Millerd’s sister Essie Stogsdill Pulliam was a witness. Millerd is always full of surprises and has been the hardest of the Stogsdills to research. We thought we had discovered everything, but no. This marriage was unknown to us researchers.
However, Millerd and Izella were not to remain married for too long. I haven’t found a divorce record, but Izella had a child, Roscoe Thomas, with Ben Aiah Thomas in 1935. Izella and Ben didn’t get married until April 30, 1937. Ben lived in Virgil, and Izella was living in Spencerville. A witness at their marriage was a William Tucker. I haven’t determined who this William was but I don’t think he was related to our Tuckers. However, it is completely possible he was, and I just haven’t made the connection. There were many Tuckers in the area, not all related. However, William is not the Tucker that becomes a part of this tangled family web.
Millerd remarried on October 8, 1938 to Sherlottie Pinkerton, who had a child William from a previous marriage.
All the previous information had been discovered sometime before November 2025.
I thought I was finished with this information. Then I received a message in November on Ancestry that I didn’t see until Friday, December 5. It was from a Dewey L. Tucker (Les), who was trying to learn about his Tucker family. His grandmother was Izella Harshbarger! Well, of course, I recognized that name immediately. But a Tucker connection? I thought she was connected through Stogsdill. (Can you see the confused look on my face?)
His DNA test at Ancestry matches him with only me of all our Tuckers that have tested there. I didn’t see any match between him, me, and any of the Stogsdill relatives. So there is pretty good evidence Dewey is not a descendant of Millerd. However, he is a DNA match also for many of Lula Grace Tucker’s descendants. So yes, there is one of our Tuckers involved in his line. He told me that his family would always clam up when he asked questions about his grandfather, Dewey H. Tucker’s father. However, he had found a record with the father listed as Jewel Tucker and mother as his grandmother Izella, whom he knew personally. I did a quick search and found the record also. It was a Social Security record.
Jewel Tucker was someone my mother told me a little about. She said he and his daughter “Tootie” would visit at our Tucker grandparents’ home. Mom was a little annoyed that Tootie would never help with anything. After she told me about Jewel, I had found him on a census living with his uncle George Washington Tucker. His parents were Harvey C. and Finnie Tucker, who both vanished from records after the 1910 census. Like my great aunts and uncles following the death of their parents John & Arnetta, Jewel was enrolled by his guardian, George W., in school on February 12, 1916, in Wilson Township, Oklahoma. Jewel was a classmate of our Stogsdills as well as Izella. Both George Washington and Harvey C. Tucker were sons of my 2nd great grandfather, Pinckney Carroll Tucker and his second wife Prudence Davis. So, George and Harvey were half brothers to my great grandfather, John Newton Tucker. Their mother Prudence Davis claimed Indian heritage, but the children were rejected when they applied. I am not sure if they ever were successful in further attempts.
When did Jewel and Izella marry? Maybe they didn’t. I haven’t found a marriage or divorce record yet. But, their son Dewey Huston/Houston Tucker, was born in September 1927. This is before Millerd married Izella! Now, we have learned of a child she might have brought to the marriage. Maybe she didn’t.
1930
The 1930 U.S. Census might provide more insight into Millerd and Izella’s relationship and her son Jewel if it wasn’t so elusive. The few copies of the census I can find for anyone they might have been living with, if not on their own, don’t show them with other family either. So, I will continue to try to find documents that might shed some light on son Dewey’s whereabouts and Millerd and Izella’s marriage.
Even Jewel Tucker. What happened to him? He was no longer living with his uncle George in 1930, but a Ned Langley, 17, is a lodger with George’s family. Was he related to Myrtle Stogsdill Langley’s husband’s family? There is a Ned Langley the same age also recorded in 1930 with his parents, who are related to Myrtle's in-law's family. It could be the same person, if he moved from one household to the other. All of our relatives and their extended families knew each other in that area with many connections between them. One example is the marriage of Vera Langley and Marion Stogsdill.
1940
On the 1940 US Federal Census, Izella was living with her husband Ben Aiah Thomas and their son Rosco, who was 5. No Dewey, who would have been about 13. That census asks where people lived in 1935, and it is recorded that they were all living in Choctaw County also. Unfortunately, it does not ask who was living with them.
By 1940, Jewel was 32, living in Burke, Little River, Arkansas with his wife Nell and children Louise 12, James 8, and Fanny May "Tootie" 6. He was a laborer in the Saw Mills and owned his home worth $350 on an income of $250 a year. No Dewey.
The 1940 U.S. Census shows Luella Harshbarger, Dewey (as Pulliam) and Billy (as Tucker), living with Luella’s daughter Edna’s family. It also shows she was living in Oklahoma in 1935. So, we have found Dewey, living with his grandmother, aunt, and uncle.
Dewey and Billy’s surnames vary from one document to another, as well as their birthdates and ages. Was Billy Pulliam, as he most often appeared on documents, part of the family Essie Stogsdill married into? Luella enrolled Dewey Tucker and Billy Pulliam in school as their guardian for multiple years. Dewey and Billy were both her grandsons per her family.
In 1945, Dewey H. Tucker was living in San Louis Obispo, California when he registered for the WWII Draft at 18. It appears this is where the Harshbarger family relocated after the 1940 census.
1950
In 1950, per the census, Jewel is living in Maricopa County, Arizona and working as a farm hand. This was about the time my mom said that he and his daughter would visit my grandparents home. He might have been working for my grandfather Archie Odus Tucker. Other relatives from Oklahoma had worked there as well in the early days. I don’t know how long he was in Arizona; but, at some point, he moved back to Little River, Arkansas where he was a foreman. He died there on March 26, 1978.
The 1950 Census shows Luella Harshbarger living next door to her daughter Edna’s family in Nipomo, San Luis Obispo, California. With Luella is a Billy J. Thomas, 17, born in Oklahoma and her grandson. Seems Billy has another name. Apparently, his nephew says he is Billy Joe Pullium and they changed his name to Thomas. Does this mean he was another child of Izella born in 1932? His nephew confirmed that Billy was Izella's son, but he doesn't know who was his father. The family Bible has his name as Billy Joe Thomas.
Here is Dewey H. Tucker’s obituary found on FindAGrave.
I guess this is all for now. Maybe someday those 1930 census records will be found by someone and provide some more answers. I would love to know the dynamics of those early years. Meanwhile, there is another Tucker to research. Ruby Lee Tucker, who may be the daughter of the William Tucker on Izella and Ben's marriage record, was also recorded in the family Bible. And I should also mention that Izella's sister Maggie Dyer married George Henry Pulliam when she was 33 in 1926. It was her second marriage. I am still trying to determine who was Billy's father as well.
I will update this if, and when, I find any more details.
I have to add that I am a little surprised Izella and Millerd didn't have a child!
Research November/December 2025
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