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An American Family History

John Hicks

Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796. It was initially part of North Carolina.

John Hicks was born about 1747 in Maryland. He was the son of Shadrach Hicks (1725) and grandson of Nehemiah Hicks. He was a cabinetmaker.

John married Comfort Malone daughter of John Malone about 1771 in Maryland. Comfort was born about 1755 in Maryland.

John's children probably included:
Isaac Hicks (1772),
William Hicks (1774, married Anna Milard),
Shadrack (Shade) Hicks (1775, married Elizabeth Nash),
John Hicks (1778, married Margaret (Peggy) Houk),
Abraham Hicks (1781),
Charles B. Hicks (1783, married Sarah Houk),
George M. Hicks (1789, married Mary Houk), and
Sarah Hicks (1795, married John Diddle and William Stone).

They moved to Sullivan County, Tennessee about 1776.

Three of the boys, John, Charles, and George, married sisters who were their cousins and the daughters of Mary Malone (daughter of John Malone) and Adam Houk.

Sullivan County is in far northeast corner of Tennessee between North Carolina and Virginia and was originally part of those states. It was formed in 1779 when it was divided from Washington County.

 
Watauga Pioneer Neighbors
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East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.

Illinois became a state in 1818. A large influx of American settlers came in the 1810s by the Ohio River.

from C.W. Hick's Civil War Questionaire

...Shade [Shadrick Hicks[ I believe, was the father of my great grandfather, John Hicks. He and Adam Houk married sisters, the former Comfort and the latter Mary Malone, and both moved to Sevier county, Tenn.

John Hicks' children were William, Isaac, John, Charles, George, Abraham, Shadrach and Sarah.

[Adam] Houk's children were Mary, Mary (Peggy), Rebecca, Flora, Sarah, Archimedes and John (Jack).

Both John Hicks and Adam Houk moved from Sullivan to Sevier county. There
John Hicks married his cousin, Peggy Houk,
George Hicks married Mary Houk
and my grandfather, Charles Hicks, married Sarah Houk, from whom, and my father I got most of the history of the families - father, Mark More Hicks.

Grandfather, Charles [Hicks] moved on Boyd's Creek in Knox county where my father was born, Feb.21, 1811. From Boyd's Creek grandfather moved to Louisville, Blount county, where George Milton was born in 1817. Other children, Albert, Rolston, Narcissa, were born either here on Boyd's Creek.

When the lands of the Hiwassee were put on sale in 1819 grandfather [Charles Hicks] entered a quarter section of land in Monroe county, six miles southwest from Madisonville, one mile from Chestua Campground, built a cabin and moved to it in Feb. 1820. Here two more children Eliza Crawford in 1823 and Wesley Jones in 1826. The latter was the author of Hicks Manuel of Chancery Practice which he mainly wrote at Madisonville, Tenn. where he practiced law from 1856 to 1869, when he went to Knoxville and formed a partnership with Judge George Brown, a former Monroe countian. He died in 1876 and his body rests in Gray Cemetery.

Four of grandfather's brothers, also, came to Monroe county in the same neighborhood, to wit: John, Abraham, Shade and George.

George [Hicks] however, settled in Madisonville, one of the first where the town was later located, and put up a horse power cotton gin. He was a fine cabinet maker and carpenter, as his father, John, had been before him.

Grandfather, Charles, and my father, Mark More, also did work of that kind. Two of George's sons, Geo. Wash. and James Crawford, followed the cabinet makers trade until their demise several years ago. That trade by hand craft has ceased.

The father of Adam Houk is said to have come from Bavaria, Germany and thereby hangs a story. He and his young wife were strong, protestants, in a Roman Catholic community. She visited a sick Roman Catholic cousin and found an image of the Virgin Mary set up at the gate to be prayed to for the recovery of the sick one. In contempt Mrs. Houk took a pair of scissors swinging to her apron string and clipped off the ears of the image. That was a crime against the law of the land for which they sought to arrest her. She hid out on the banks of a river until arrangements were made and they came to America.

William Hicks, son of John, was the father of the late Rev. William Hicks who was the father of Rev. W.W. Hicks of the Holston Conference, M.E. Church, South.

Isaac Hicks, son of John moved to Illinois and at last account one of his sons was a prominent lawyer and Judge there.

Sarah [Hicks], daughter of John Hicks, married William Stone, moved to Morganton, Blount co., then to near Chestua Campground, Monroe co., and both died and are buried there, where a large number of Hicks families are buried.

Rebecca Houk married George Millard, moved to Madisonville, where he built a house and lived several years, then moved to near Riceville, McMinn co. He was from Philadelphia, Pa.

Another daughter of Adam and Mary Malone Houk, Eliza [Houk], as I now remember married a Chandler, William, I think it was, and they raised a family in Sevier county.

One of the daughters married the late E.E. McCroskey of Knoxville.

John (Jack) Houk raised several children in Sevier co. by his first wife. The late Hon. Leonidas C. Houk of Knoxville, was his son by a second wife,

Arch. If Arch. Houk was ever married or left any descendants I never heard it mentioned. Like nearly all the Houk men he was a carpenter

 

During the Civil war many citizens of East Tennessee opposed secession, but the area was under Confederate control from 1861 to 1863. Some citizens engaged in guerrilla warfare against state authorities and joined the Union army, while others were loyal to the confederacy. It was a heartbreaking case of neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother.


 

 

 
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©Roberta Tuller 2020
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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