J. W. Hickok

HICKOK, STARK, STEVENS, BRIGGS, FRICK, ROMEY

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 3/5/2007 at 22:01:23

Biographies from the 1914 "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola Counties of Iowa"

J. W. HICKOK.

In every town and city in the United States there are men whose business it is to minister to the material wants of man, and no more genial people are to be found than the men who manage the hotels and taverns of our country. For more than thirty-two years J. W. Hickok has been the proprietor of the hotel at Sibley, Iowa, known as the Osceola House, and during that long period of time thousands of people have partaken of his hospitality. It can not be gainsaid that many people get their first view of a town from the hotel where they stop, and for this reason a good hotel is one of the most valuable assets of a town or city. It is safe to say that there is no more popular proprietor in Iowa than Mr. Hickok, who has dispensed his generous hospitality for so many years in this city.

J. W. Hickok, the son of John M. and Mary (Stark) Hickok, was born December 15, 1850, in Grant County, Wisconsin, on a farm. His parents were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania, and in the early forties left their native state for Wisconsin, making the trip by lake and team. They passed through Chicago when there was only one building in that now famous city, and arrived in Grant County, Wisconsin, among the earliest pioneers of that state. One year after they settled in Wisconsin they drove back to Pennsylvania with Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff for a year's visit, the trip taking them twelve weeks. They reared a family of nine children in Wisconsin and lived there the remainder of their days, John M. Hickok dying in 1869 and his wife passing away in 1897 in Iowa. The nine children of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Hickok are as follows: Almon, deceased; James, deceased; one who died in infancy in Pennsylvania; Cornelia, who died in Wisconsin; J. W., with whom this narrative deals; George V., who lives in Grant County, Wisconsin; Charles, who is a resident of California; Mrs. Minerva Bradley, also of California, and Mrs. Effie Suter, who lives in Sibley, Iowa.

J. W. Hickok was educated in the schools of Grant County, Wisconsin, and assisted his father to till the home farm until his marriage, at the early age of nineteen. He followed the vocation of agriculture in his native state until 1880, when he disposed of his interests in his native state with the intention of going West and investing in land in Iowa. He arrived in Osceola County, Iowa, on April 8, 1881, with his wife and five children. After looking over the county, he decided to embark in the hotel business and accordingly purchased the Osceola House in Sibley, where he has continued as proprietor down to the present time. He took charge of the hotel on July 25. 1881, and since that time has been an active factor in the civic life of his town and community. He holds the record in Iowa for the continuous ownership of one hotel, an honor which speaks well for his successful management.

Mr. Hickok was married in Grant County, Wisconsin, in 1869, to Frances R. Stevens, and to this marriage have been born five children: Mrs. Agnes Briggs, of Leeds, South Dakota: Mrs. Anna Frick, who lives in Yankton. South Dakota; Mrs. Nellie Romey, of Melvin, Iowa; Gertie Hickok, who died in Wisconsin, and Edna, who is still living with her parents. George A. Romey, the husband of Nellie Hickok, is represented elsewhere in this work with a biographical sketch. He is cashier of the First National Bank at Melvin, in this county.

Politically, Mr. Hickok is a Democrat, but the nature of his business has kept him from taking an active part in political affairs. However, he has always been a wide reader of current events and keeps well informed upon the political questions of the day. He is an Odd Fellow of thirty years* standing and has always taken an active interest in the affairs of that fraternal organization. He also holds membership in the Modern Woodmen of America. Mr. Hickok has carried on his hotel enterprise with that discretion and energy which are sure to find their natural sequence in definite success. He has always been a hard worker, a good manager and a man of economical habits, and, being pleasantly situated in a thriving state and in a thriving county, it is no wonder that he has gained substantial material success in his chosen vocation. There is no more widely known, popular hotel man in the state than he, a tribute indeed to his genial nature and uprightness of character.

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