KATY RICE FARMING FAMILY:
Family history helps tell the story of Katy, too
By KAREN HASTINGS, CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT Published 1:55 pm, Tuesday, January 3, 2012
SUZANNE REHAK: FOR THE CHRONICLE
MUSEUM DONATION: Dona Barker, left, recently donated a number of Tucker family items to the Katy Heritage Museum, 6202 George Bush Drive in Katy. Barker points out family members to her daughters, Cheryl Wright of Burnet and Gina Corsi of Katy, in front of a mural of the Tucker family rice business. Photo: Suzanne Rehak
Photo: Suzanne Rehak
SUZANNE REHAK: FOR THE CHRONICLE MUSEUM DONATION: Dona Barker, left, recently donated a number of Tucker family items to the Katy Heritage Museum, 6202 George Bush Drive in Katy. Barker points out family members to her daughters, Cheryl Wright of Burnet and Gina Corsi of Katy, in front of a mural of the Tucker family rice business.
Dona Tucker Barker, surviving daughter of a three-generation Katy rice farming family, calls herself "a keeper."
Her habit of holding on to old family photos, letters and other artifacts turns out to be a windfall for the Katy Heritage Museum, 6002 George Bush Drive, which recently presented her collection, titled "A Story of Katy Rice." The display at the city museum tells the story of her family and its contributions to one of Katy's founding industries.
Barker - whose father and grandfather were rice farmers beginning in the early 1900s - continued the tradition with her late husband until 1970.
"Rice farming is a nine-month job and it's big. You have to make levees, dig big wells and have a lot of water," said Dona Barker, 87. "I enjoyed it. It was fun to look at the rice in different stages. And it's a good-selling crop."
Barker and daughters Gina Corsi and Cheryl Wright organized donations of family artifacts and photos to the Katy Heritage Society, which owns and manages the MKT Depot museum and visitors center and historic buildings at Katy Heritage Park.
More Information
KATY HERITAGE MUSEUM
Where: 6002 George Bush Drive
Hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. the first Saturday of every month and noon-3 p.m. the first Sunday.
Details: 281-391-4884 or
http://cityofkaty.com/visit-us/museums/"Her grandfather was a rice farmer. Her father brought the first rice dryer here and other equipment that revolutionized the industry," said Katy Councilwoman Carol Adams, who is active in preserving Katy's heritage. "They've had a pretty big impact on things here."
She said the collection - including "stunning" photos of rice farming and town life in Old Katy - is a welcome addition to museums and exhibits.
One of Barker's grandfathers, Adam Stockdick, sold farmland to the man who would become her other grandfather, L.G. Tucker, in 1908. Later, Stockdick's daughter Jessie married L.G. Tucker's son, T.B.
T.B. Tucker researched and built the area's first rice dryer, and also was the first to use a self-propelled combine to farm rice. Dona - T.B. and Jessie's only surviving child - describes her family as "creative and innovative people."
In 1946, when Dona Tucker was still in college, her father and two brothers died in a plane crash, in an airplane the family had purchased only days before to use in the family business, and in her parents' work as traveling Christian evangelists. At that time, Dona already was being courted by her future husband, Raymond Barker, whom she met at a revival meeting.
The Barkers returned to Katy to take up the family business soon after they married in 1947. Family members and the rice farming community had rallied 'round them.
Katy was "just like a big family," recalled Dona Barker. "They were always helping one another."
The family was tested again in 1954, when the Tucker Rice Dryer - full of rice - burned in a blaze visible for miles. It was a major catastrophe both for the family and for the community. The land was still fertile, however, and three years later, Raymond Barker built a new rice dryer.
Many of these milestones are captured in "A Story of Katy Rice." There's a Stockdick flier from the early 1900s proclaiming "Now is the Time!" to invest in Katy land, touting the area's "well-drained rich chocolate loam," and noting "When you are dead, it's too late."
A 1908 letter from L.G. Tucker in Glen Flora to Adam Stockdick in Katy, assured him "I am coming … without any delay."
There's a 1912 picture at the family's first irrigation well. A lengthy Aug. 8, 1937 letter from Gilliam Boyce Tucker to his father T.B., describes how he managed the farm while the father was busy with his evangelical mission.
Items for the Wright Museum at Katy Heritage Park, 5990 George Bush Drive, highlight town life in old Katy, and are part of more than 100 boxes of material saved by Barker and sorted by her daughters.
Jessie Tucker's lace wedding gown and Dona Barker's pink-and-silver high school prom dress are part of the collection.
"The history that she kept is just unbelievable," said Steve Pierson, Katy Heritage Society president.