Hicks, Joseph A.

HICKS, RODMAN, BAYLESS, HAIGHT, WOOD, CASE, CRINKLAW, COLLINS, PERCY, BARBER, HARRINGTON, WARD, CARTER, GUSSYTHE, SPURRELL, BLESSINGTON, KILGORE, HUNTER, EVANS, FELTER

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Date: 4/15/2003 at 21:39:24

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

JOSEPH A. HICKS.

One of the most industrious and enterprising agriculturists of Deep Creek township is Joseph A. Hicks, who carries on his chosen calling on section 17. A native of New York, he was born in Schoharie county, April 12, 1840, and is a son of Jacob and Angeline (Rodman) Hicks, who brought their family to Clinton county, Iowa, in 1856, and settled in Deep Creek township, where the father followed farming until 1867. He then purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Waterford township, to the improvement and cultivation of which he devoted his energies for ten years, and at the end of that time bought one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 17, Deep Creek township, making it his home until 1890, when he purchased eighty acres and engaged in the operation of that farm until his retirement from active labor. He died in 1896, at the advanced age of eighty years, honored and respected by all who knew him. His wife passed away in 1900, at the age of eighty-six. To this worthy couple were born the following children: Joseph A., our subject, is the oldest; Madison, who served as a private in the Second Iowa Cavalry during the war of the Rebellion, married Louise Whitum and resides in Calhoun county, Iowa; Mary Eliza married C. W. Bayless and both are now deceased; Andrew married Cynthia Haight and makes his home in Greene county, Iowa; Sarah Ann is the wife of Charles Wood, of Calhoun county; Philotus married Alma Case and resides in Calhoun county, Iowa; John, deceased, married Alice Crinklaw, now a resident of Miles.

Joseph A. Hicks was principally reared and educated in the state of his nativity, and came west with his father in 18 56, remaining under the parental roof until he was married January 22, 18 67, to Miss Louisa Collins. She is a native of Long Island, Canada, and a daughter of John D. and Bessie (Percy) Collins. Her mother died in Canada when Mrs. Hicks was young, and in 1855 her father came to Iowa, where he departed this life at the age of sixty-eight years. Unto them were born five children: Augusta, a resident of Clayton, New York; Mary, who wedded, first Itlamer Barber, and, second, Brainard Harrington; Louisa, wife of our subject; Julia, wife of Nathan Ward, of Colorado; and William, who was wounded in the attack on Vicksburg during the Civil war, while a member of Company A, Twenty-first Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and died in the hospital. For his second wife the father of this family married Lydia Carter, now deceased, and by that union he also had five children, namely: Bowen C., who married Eliza Gussythe; Seth L., who married Ellen Spurrell and lives in Deep Creek township; Robert I. married L. Blessington and lives in Iowa; Houghton, who married Lizzie Kilgore; and Orville E. lives in Chadron, Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks have three children: Orville A., who wedded Mary Hunter and makes his home in Preston, Iowa; Edith M., wife of Edward D. Evans, who resides with our subject; and Clara B., wife of Louis Felter, of Wisconsin.

Mr. Hicks’ first purchase of land consisted of forty acres in Waterford township, which he subsequently sold, and then bought two hundred and ten acres in Fairfax township, Jackson county. On disposing of that property he purchased on hundred and sixty acres of fine farming land where he now lives. As a general farmer and stock raiser he has been very successful, and is to-day one of the well-to-do men of his community, as well as one of its most highly respected citizens. In his political views he is a Republican.