1850 US Census, Choctaw CO, AL
Living with father
Listed as John W., Age 9

1860 US Census, Choctaw CO, AL
Living with father
Listed as J. M. Luker, 19

1870 US Census for Choctaw CO, Al, Township 13
Luker, Joseph , age 30
Sarah Luker, age 23
Susan, age 8/12
Luker, John W., age 29 farmer born AL
Sarah, age 24, keeping house, born Mississippi
James 1
Joshua 12 can’t write
Georgia 10 cant write
Presley Hardy, farm labor

**Living next door to Geo Luker
Source Citation: Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 13, Choctaw, Alabama; Roll: M593_7; Page: 474; Image: 483.

1880 US Census for Comanche CO, Texas
John W. Luker, 38 b AL fa: AL Mo:SC
J. Sarah Luker, 34 b. AL fa: TN mo: AL
Robert A, b. AL, age 8
William A, 6
John Floyd ,4
Turner G..2
Julia E. 4 mo
Thomas S. Ewell, 40. teaching school

1900 US Census, Comanche CO, TX
John,
Sallie, 47
Robert A., 28 bn AL
Julia, age 20 bn TX
Mac A., age 16 bn TX

1910 US Census, Comanche CO, TX
John W Luker
Age in 1910: 69
Estimated Birth Year: 1840
Birthplace: Alabama
Home in 1910:
4 J-PCT, COMANCHE, Texas
Race: White
Gender: Male
Series: T624
Roll: 1541
Part: 1
Page: 128A

1920 US Census, Comanche CO, TX (Jan 6, 1920)
Luker, Jno W., Head, 78, AL AL AL
Luker, Sallie J., Wife, 67, MS, GA, AL
_________________
Jus W Luker

Age: 78 years  Estimated birth year: abt 1842
Birthplace: Alabama
Race: White
Home in 1920: Proctor, Comanche, Texas
View Image
Roll: T625_1789
Page: 3B
ED: 76
Image: 0758

John Wade Luker and Sarah J. Ewing Luker


“Mr. John Luker, who is numbered among the leading farmers of Comanche CO, was born in Choctaw CO, Alabama, April 14, 1841, and is a son of James and Elizabeth (Edwards) Luker, who were married in Alabama. He is the owner of one of the most valuable farming properties of Comanche CO, his real-estate holdings comprising seven hundred acres of good land, entirely surrounded by fence, while one hundred and fifty acres are divided into fields of convenient size and placed under a good state of cultivation. Upon the place is a comfortable residence and substantial barns and outbuildings, together with the latest improved machinery and all the accessories to be found in one of Texas’ model farms. There is a good orchard, and broad pasture lands, and the stock which is raised is of good grade. He has a fine jack and is raising mules as well as cattle. Careful attention, capable management and industry have brought to him success, and by his own efforts he has accumulated a comfortable competence.”11

Prior to his move to Comanche County, John Luker had been a combatant on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Captured at the Battle of Shiloh, he was interred as a prisoner of war at a Union hospital in Albany, Indiana.2 After the war he married Sarah J. Ewing daughter of Captain W. A. D. Ewing on October 24, 18692 in Butler, Choctaw CO, Alabama. Not only devastated by the war and his time as a Union prisoner, John Wade and Sarah lost their oldest son, James, in a tragic wagon accident. This may have been the final motivation for John W. Luker to move his family by wagon to Texas in 1875-76. Chosen wagon master for the train, John Wade had the enormous responsibility of directing eight wagons and their occupants to a new and unknown territory, fording dangerous rivers, dealing with hostile Indians as well as winter weather. In the wagons with John and Sarah Luker were their children who were born in Alabama: Robert Andrew, Charles Floyd, and William Allen.

Arriving in Comanche County, in 1875, John and Sarah purchased rich farming land on the Leon River. As they settled in, they also helped sister Susan Luker Buckler get settled with her six children. The Lukers were a very close-knit family, supporting one another through good times and bad. John provided a place for sister-in-law Mollie Luker and her children to live when his brother Benjamin Franklin died. John Luker and Frank Luker had married sisters, Mary “Mollie” C. and Sarah J. Ewing.

All of the Lukers were very religious—all were Methodist. John Luker provided the leadership for the founding and building of Graham Chapel Methodist Church and school. He donated the land for the Church and Cemetery. “John was the “Exhorter” for the Graham Chapel Methodist church. It was his responsibility to encourage the discouraged, to seek to reclaim the backsliders, and to look after the general spiritual welfare of the congregation. In other words, he was a sort of assistant pastor. He presided on Sunday evenings for the services of prayer, singing, and testimonies.”3 Under the leadership of John Luker, the church and school became the center of community social life.

Children of John W. Luker and Sarah J. Ewing Luker are: James Ewing (1870-1873); Robert Andrew “Bob” Luker (1871-1953); William Allen David, (1874-1946); John Frank, 1876-Dec); Turner Graham, 1878-1960); Julia Eugenia, (1880-Dec); Mack A., (1884-1948)

Sarah J. Luker born December 6, 1845 in Mississippi, died in Comanche County Oct 24 1885. Her two young children Julia and Mack went to live with her sister Mollie for a while so that they would have the supervision they needed. On September 7, 1890, John Luker married Sallie Castleberry. Sallie was born in Mississippi Oct 11, 1852. The couple had two children, Malissa and Dessie E. Neither lived to adulthood. Sallie was a warm and supportive mother for John’s older children.

Julia Luker, John and Sarah’s only daughter , said of her father, “Papa’s greatest heritage to me was the truth found in the Bible passage he often repeated to me: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold’ — Proverbs 22:1.”4 John Luker’s life was a testimony to the truth of this scripture.

John Luker died April 23, 1929 and Sallie Luker died April 6, 1936. John W. Luker, Sarah J. Ewing Luker, Sallie Castleberry Luker are all buried in the Luker Cemetery. Several of their children are also buried there.

Texas Death Index, 1903-2000
Name: John Wabe Luker
Death Date: 23 May 1929
Death County: Comanche
Certificate: 24572

Ancestry.com. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Texas Department of Health. Texas Death Indexes, 1903-2000. Austin, TX, USA: Texas Department of Health, State Vital Statistics Unit.

“The grandaughters had been sent to a girl’s boarding school at Pushmataha just preceding the war, and John Smith had met Mary Ewing in those antebellum days.”159

“Your Aunt Sadie, however, never gave up her prejudices. She remembered the burning of the Castleton manor house, and held ‘Old Abe Lincoln’ responsible for it.”

“She, too, observed teh caste idea in selecting my friends. She was a perfect little aristocrt, if ther eever was one,” declared Sarah.160

1910 Comanche CO Census shows John W. and Sallie living alone.
She had two children but none were living in 1910.

1930 Comanche CO Census:
4-J-PCT
Luker, Sallie Age: 77 Sex: F Race:W Birth: MS