Rufus Tucker was born in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina on April 5, 1829. Born into a wealthy merchant and planter family, Tucker entered his father's mercantile business after graduating from the University of North Carolina and also ran a plantation in Pitt County. His family's store on Nash Square became one of the largest and most successful stores in the state, and Margaret Eliza Cotten, along with many of Raleigh's other citizens frequented it. He died in Raleigh August 4, 1894.