California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


RICHARD KUKER. A fund of energy, ability and resource was the capital with which 
Richard Kuker came to California and undertook the upbuilding of his personal fortunes, 
while he at the same time gave his best efforts toward the material development of the com- 
munity in which he now makes his home. He was born in Hanover, Germany, near Verden, 
July 26, 1838, one of a family of three children, all of whom are living, Mary being the wife of 
William Mehrtens, located near Exeter, and Henry being still in Germany. 

Richard Kuker was reared in his home in Germany, attending the common schools until he was 
fourteen years old, at which age he lost his father. From that time until his emigration to 
America he found employment on farms in the vicinity of his home. Upon his location in the 
United States he bought a small farm, which he conducted until 1872. Selling out in that year 
he came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, landing in San Francisco, where he 
bought two horses and moved by wagon to Sand creek, Tulare county. After two years of gen- 
eral farming he located on his present property, purchasing six hundred and forty acres of rail- 
road land on section 17, township 19, range 27, while he pre-empted eighty acres on section 8, 
township 19, range 27, and homesteaded eighty acres on section 18, township 19, range 27, now 
owning the eight hundred acres in one body. Of this tract four hundred acres are under plow 
and devoted to the raising of grain and cattle. He has improved his property and brought it up 
to a high state of cultivation, giving the most painstaking attention to all the departments of 
the work. In his herd of cattle he has some fine graded stock- in Short-horns and Durhams. 
In Germany, in 1866, Mr. Kuker married Catherine Bienhorn, a native of Verden, Han- 
over, and born of this union are two children, Dora, the wife of William Starns, of Yokohl. 
and Sophia, the wife of Axel Anderson, located near Lemon Cove. Mr. Kuker is a member of 
the Lutheran Church, and politically is an active Republican, having served as an election judge 
of the Yokohl district and in many ways has given his strongest support to the advancement 
of the principles he endorses.