On This Day in Family History - March 13

 Malisa Evaline Burns Hicks was born 13 March 1845

Malisa was my great-great-grandmother, mother of my great-grandfather Ulysses Hicks

She married John Henry Hicks 

(Malisa's sister Margaret Burns married John Henry's brother Joseph Hicks.)

Photo: John Henry Hicks and Malisa Evaline Burns Hicks

They had nine children: Ishmael, Timothy, David, Joseph Pinkney, Nancy Ellen, John Ransom, Charlotte (called "Tot"), Felix Hallmark, and Ulysses Fillmore. 

Ishmael, Timothy, and John Ransom all died in childhood. 

Photo: Back - Felix, Felix's wife Ida holding daughter Rosie, Ulysses

Front: John Henry, Malisa, David

Photo: Ulysses, Felix, Pink, David

Photos: Left, Charlotte ("Tot")            Right, Nancy ("Nannie")

Malisa Hicks died 03 April 1920

Here is what my grandmother Cleffie Hicks Burford wrote in her memoirs:

MY GRANDMA HICKS' FUNERAL

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.