Johnson-Laurens County GaArchives Biographies.....Hicks, James B. 1870 - living in 1913 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 19, 2004, 10:19 pm Author: William Harden p. 824-825 JUDGE JAMES B. HICKS. The career of James B. Hicks, attorney, judge, legislator, business man and all around good citizen, is one that one may contemplate with all pleasure and nothing of opposing sentiment. A straightforward statement of the facts of his progress from the rural districts which represented his home to his present high place in the social economic fabric of the county of which he is a resident cannot fail to prove of interest, and the record of his life thus far is here set forth, devoid of all attempt at embellishment or adornment of whatever variety. James B. Hicks was born in Wrightsville, Georgia, on February 28, 1870, and he is a son of Dr. Henry and Nancy (Wright) Hicks. The father, long a practicing physician in his district, was born on the 15th of September, 1832, and died on June 24, 1900. The birth of the mother occurred on September 23, 1841, and she survived her husband some five years, passing away on April 27, 1905. Both were natives of Johnson county. The father served as a surgeon during the Civil war with the Confederate army, with Johnson's Grays, and four of his brothers also served in that regiment. When James B. Hicks was five years old his parents moved to Laurens county, and there they lived on a farm for ten years. The boy attended the district schools during that time, and when he was fifteen the family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, in order that the children might have greater educational advantages, school facilities in their former home district being of a limited nature. He attended school at Milledgeville in the Middle Georgia Military and Agricultural College for two years, and thereafter attended Mercer University at Macon, Georgia. He was graduated from the university in 1892 with his bachelor's degree, and came almost immediately to Dublin, where he took service with his brother, who was a member of the drug firm of the H. Hicks & Company, in the capacity of collector. After a year at this work he went to Atlanta, Georgia, where he read law under Hines, Shubrick & Felder for a year, and in 1893 he was admitted to the bar. He returned to Dublin at that time and began the practice of law, a profession in which he has experienced an unusually fair degree of success. He has taken a prominent place in the public eye, and his service as mayor of Dublin for two terms, 1899 and 1900, was one of the greatest values to the city. In 1902, Mr. Hicks was elected to the state legislature as a representative from his county, and something of the standing he enjoys in the county may be gleaned from the facts that of five candidates in the race for the legislative offices, with two to be elected, of two thousand, six hundred votes polled, Mr. Hicks received every vote in the county with the exception of about three hundred. He served through the years of 1902, 1903 and 1904, in the Georgia legislature, and was one of the several men who voted to change the legislative session from fall to summer. After his nomination to the legislative office in 1902 Mr. Hicks was siezed with an attack of nervous indigestion, which clung persistently to him all through his legislative career, and so impaired his general health that when he left the legislature he repaired to his farm in the county and there continued for some time. He kept up a part of his law practice, however, during that time, spending a part of his time on the farm until 1911. On November 10th of that year he was appointed by Governor Hoke Smith as judge of the city court of Dublin to fill out the unexpired term of Judge K. J. Hawkins, who had been promoted to the bench of the superior courts of the Dublin circuit. In 1912, Mr. Hicks was a candidate for the judgeship for a full term, and made an excellent run for the nomination, being nominated by a majority of three hundred and forty-seven votes over the highest opponent. He was elected to the office and is now giving service in his capacity as judge. Judge Hicks is a prominent Mason, with a membership in the blue lodge and the Royal Arch Masons. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He still retains membership in the Kappa Sigma, his college fraternity, and is a member of the Christian church. Among many other interests of Judge Hicks, he has continued to retain his identity with the agricultural activities of the county and is the owner of something like seventeen hundred acres of fine land. Judge Hicks was one of the six children of his parents, all of whom are living with the exception of B. G. Hicks, who died at the early age of nineteen years, at Milledgeville, Georgia. The others are: Mrs. Leslie Kennedy, of Dublin; Mrs. Mabel A. Warthen, of Bartow, Georgia; Talmadge M., a practicing attorney of Dublin; and R. P., who is engaged in farming in the vicinity of "Wrightsville, Georgia. The father raised a family by an earlier marriage and. those children are Frances, Elizabeth and John W., both deceased; and Thomas B., of Dublin, Georgia. The especially brilliant career of Judge Hicks thus far has been one that has brought honor to the family name, and established it even more firmly in the annals of his county, where the house of Hicks has long been known for many splendid qualities of heart and mind. Additional Comments: From: A HISTORY OF SAVANNAH AND SOUTH GEORGIA BY WILLIAM HARDEN VOLUME II ILLUSTRATED THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1913 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/johnson/bios/gbs340hicks.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 6.1 Kb