Home of John Ruckman

The plaque tells John Ruckman's life; the 1979 National Register nomination describes the house he left. It is a two-and-a-half-story Greek Revival dwelling with a two-story north portico on octagonal columns, a star medallion painted on the dining-room ceiling where a chandelier hung, and the remnants of a bell tower. The interior walls kept their original pale colors. His daughter Margaret gave the house and 7.75 acres to local preservationists in 1968, and it was listed in June 1979 while its porches were rotting.

What the plaque says

Home of John Ruckman Ruckman (Nov. 9, 1835 - Jan. 8, 1913), born in Northumberland County, Pa., came to Texas in 1856 to join his older brother Thomas, co-founder of Helena. Landing at Indianola on his 21st birthday, he came here to spend lifetime as farmer, rancher, postmaster, merchant, pioneer banker, leader in Presbyterian church. In Civil War, 1862-65, he was a lieutenant in Confederate Army. Married Lizzie Dickson, 1867. Children were John, Robert, Mary, Thomas, Follmer, Hester, Hugh and Margaret. In 1878 he built this house of Florida cypress. He is buried in Helena Cemetery. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Panna Maria — 4.7 mi
  The Silesian village on a plateau above the San Antonio River that claims the oldest permanent Polish settlement in America, with a church of 1878 and a ceiling found again in 2000.
• Goliad State Park and Historic Site — 33 mi
  Mission Espíritu Santo on the San Antonio River, a mission ranch whose herds seeded Texas cattle country, rebuilt from ruin by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
• Zaragoza Birthplace State Historic Site — 34 mi
  A rebuilt stone house beside La Bahía marking where Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, the general of the Battle of Puebla and Cinco de Mayo, was born in 1829.
• Presidio La Bahía — 34 mi
  A Spanish fort on its third site since 1749, held in turn by filibusters, insurgents and Fannin's Fort Defiance, rebuilt in stone in the 1960s around a chapel that never fell.

More markers nearby

• Helena Union Church — steps away
• Helena — 0.2 mi
• Thomas Ruckman — 0.2 mi
• Town of Panna Maria — 4.7 mi