Hendee, Tucke, Parker family papers

The Hendee, Tucke and Parker family papers include material from three generations of the interrelated Lowell, Massachusetts families involved in merchant shipping, banking and real estate.

Thomas William Hendee (sometimes referred to as Willie in letters) was a ship captain and businessman from Lowell, Massachusetts who worked in India and England during the mid 19th century. Hendee was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1829 and went to sea at a young age as a cabin boy. In 1854, he was employed as the captain of the ship Sabine by Portsmouth, New Hampshire ship owner Jonathan M. Tredick and made merchant voyages to Europe, Shanghai, Canton and Bombay carrying cotton bales. That same year, Hendee began a three year courtship with Augusta Tucke (referred to as Gus or Gustie), daughter of Lowell National Bank president Edward Tucke and his wife Emily Coburn Tucke. They were married in 1857 and had their first child, Eddie in 1859. Around 1860, Hendee acquired the ship Rattlesnake and sailed on a voyage to Bombay with his wife Augusta, their children Eddie and Willie and Augusta's sister Mary Ellen (referred to as Nellie). Eddie and Augusta died suddenly in Bombay in August 1861. Hendee remarried Augusta's sister Nellie and retired from being a ship captain. He began work as a shore superintendent for Stearns, Hobart & Company. He later moved to Liverpool, England and oversaw the outfitting and construction of ships for the Bombay and Bengal Steamship Company. The Bombay and Bengal Steamship Company was founded in 1863 under the direction of Stearns, Hobart & Co. and carried mail, freight and passengers between Suez, Egypt and Bombay and onto Calcutta. Hendee conducted the majority of his business in England, but occasionally was recalled to India to oversee operations there. He died at sea in 1867.

Hendee's brother-in-law, Edward Morton Tucke (Ned) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1840. He attended Harvard College and graduated in 1862. Tucke worked as a clerk for the Boston cloak and manilla firm Hall, Dame and Bullock and later Dame, Tucke & Co., where he rose to partner. In 1874, Tucke became secretary and treasurer of the Trader's and Mechanic's Insurance Company of Lowell, a position he held for nearly forty years. Tucke also served as president of the Lowell & Suburban Street Railway, Whittier Cotton Mills, Middlesex Trust Co., Lowell National Bank and as director of the Lowell Gas Light Co. Tucke was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1886 and 1887 and to the State Senate in 1890. Tucke married Katherine Parker, daughter of John Milton Grosvenor and Dolly Maria Parker of Lowell, in 1874 and had two children survive to adulthood. Edward Morton Tucke died in 1928.

John Milton Grosvenor Parker (Milton), son of Perley and his wife Sarah Hildreth Parker was born in 1826. In 1861, Parker enlisted in the 30th Massachusetts Regiment, lead by brother-in-law General Benjamin F. Butler and fought in the Civil War. He rose to the rank of quartermaster and after the war was appointed Postmaster General and Collector of Customs of New Orleans, a position he held until 1878. He was heavily involved in Lowell real estate and invested in many properties amassing a good fortune. Parker died in Lowell in 1888.