John Henry Hicks was born 22 August 1844 in Walker County, Alabama, and died 22 February 1919 in Cleburne County, Arkansas.
John was the son of John Hicks and Mary Polly Black.
John Henry Hicks married Malissa Evelyn Burns 25 June 1865 in Jefferson County, Alabama, daughter of Charles Burns and Nancy Thomas. She was born 13 March 1845 in Walker County, Alabama, and died 03 April 1920 in White County, Arkansas.
Children of John and Malissa Hicks are:
i. Ishmael Hicks
ii. Timothy Hicks
iii. David Anderson Hicks 1866-1949
iv. Joseph Pinkney Hicks 1872-1949 (married Ann Mirah VanWinkle)
v. Nancy Ellen Hicks 1874-1965 (married George Woodson Sandefur*)
vi. John Ransom E Hicks 1876-1883
vii. Charlotte A Hicks 1879-1956 (married Albert Franklin Williams)
viii. Felix Hallmark Hicks 1881-1932 (married Ida Mae Sandefur*)
ix. Ulysses Fillmore Hicks 1886-1965 (married Bertha Ann Arnold)
(*George and Ida Sandefur were brother and sister.)
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Here is some information my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks (wife of Ulysses Fillmore Hicks) wrote:
Ulys’ Father’s Family:
His Father and Mother was born about the year 1844. He was born in Alabama. She was also born in Alabama. They married at the age of about 20 years. They moved to Tennessee and had all their children. David, Nannie, Felix, Pinkney, Charlotte and Ulysses, and four other children that died in childhood. They moved to Arkansas when Ulys was about 3 years old, and spent the rest of their lives in Arkansas. He died at the age of 74 years. He had had a stroke of paralysis, then a year or so had another one but he was feeble for two years before he had the last stroke, but was up walking around. He died in February 1919. She died in March 1920, with a heart attack. She was as well as usual and just fell over out of her chair and was picked up dead. David died about the year 1948, at the age of 83 years, with cancer. Started in his prostate gland. Felix died about the year 1932 with intestinal parasites from a dog - some kind of real small worms in his bowels, the worms were so small that they couldn’t be seen only with a magnifying glass. Pinkney died with a heart attack in about the year 1947, at the age of 77 years. Charlotte died at the age of 77 from a heart attack in 1955, but she was sick and feeble at least a year. January 20th, David was buried at Canton, Ohio. Felix was buried in Tennessee. Charlotte was buried at the old Providence Church cemetery in Arkansas. The father was buried at Pine Grove cemetery near Floral, Arkansas. The Mother was buried at Providence...
Ulysses’ Grandmother on his Dad’s side was named Black before she married Hicks. His Grandmother’s maiden name on his Mother’s side was Thomas, then she married Burns. I don’t know what killed them. I think they lived to be pretty old. Ulys’ Grandmother and Grandfather on his Mother’s side separated in their old days. So did his Father and Mother, at the age of about 70 years. They didn’t seem to have much trouble or arguments. They were living with us when she left him. I think from what she told me, it was mostly because he was feeble and half paralyzed, and almost lost his mind. He got oversexed and he was just killing her. He couldn’t do anything and would keep her awake practically all night, and she was a very weakly woman. So I guess it was more than she could stand and live. They were both very good people. Nannie (Uly’s oldest sister) and her husband separated in their old days for about the same reason. They were also good people.
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John Henry Hicks died 22 February 1919, age 74, in Cleburne County, Arkansas. He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Floral, Independence County, Arkansas.
Malissa Burns Hicks died 03 April 1920, age 75, in White County, Arkansas. She is buried in Providence Cemetery, Judsonia, White County, Arkansas.
Here is what my grandmother Cleffie (Ulysses and Annie's daughter) wrote about Malissa Hicks' death:
There is one other thing that happened in 1920 that I faintly remember. My Grandma Hicks died and I remember of us going to her funeral. She died in April of that year before I would turn three in August. She was my father’s mother. Grandpa had died a little over a year before but I don’t remember that. But I understood now that Grandma was dead, and I remember of us walking into the church house and there was her casket up in the front not far from the pulpit. I knew she was in it. I remember that I felt a little strange; numb, or tense, or scared, or just not quite comprehending the whole thing. I know I was very quiet and ill at ease and I would be glad when we got home again. I don’t remember anything else about the funeral, I just knew that Grandma was gone. And the funny part about it is that I don’t remember anything about her before that.
She had been living with Aunt Tot and Uncle Albert. They said she had eaten a good meal that evening of pork and sauerkraut and whatever else they had. Later she belched up some of the sour juices and got strangled on it. I guess she had quite a time getting over it; did a lot of coughing and gasping for breath. After it was over and she seemed to be alright, she sat down in a chair, got her box of snuff out of her apron pocket and was getting ready to take a dip of it when she fell over dead onto the floor. I suppose the ordeal had been too much of a burden on her heart, which wasn’t very strong in the first place. That’s where my father got his weak heart, he inherited it from her. My father never used tobacco in any form even though his parents both used it.