Hickory County, Missouri Biographies--Judge William C. Hickman

History Of Hickory, Polk, Cedar, Dade And Barton Counties, 
Missouri, 1889.  Published by Goodspeed. Pages 593, 594

Judge William C. Hickman, ex-judge of the Eastern district of Hickory County, Mo., 
was born in Wilson County, Tenn., near Lebanon, August 2, 1832, and is a son of 
Snowden and Frances (Newman) Hickman, who were born in North Carolina and Virginia, 
and died in Wilson County, Tenn., in 1852, at the age of fifty years, and in Hickory 
County, Mo., in 1882, at the age of eighty-two years, respectively.  The former was 
a child of four years of age when his parents took him to Tennessee, and there he grew 
to manhood, married, and was engaged in farming and stock raising until his death.  
His father, who also bore the name of Snowden, was born in North Carolina, followed 
the occupation of farming, and died in Wilson County, Tenn.  The mother was a daughter 
of Joel Newman, a Virginian, who lived and died in his native State.  He was a 
Revolutionary soldier.  Judge William C. Hickman is the second of six children, three 
now living: Zachariah, a practicing physician, of Benton, Ill.; Martha Ann; and the 
judge, who was educated, and resided in Wilson County, Tenn., until eighteen years of 
age.  In 1851 he came West, and roamed around for a number of years.  In 1853 he crossed 
the plains with an ox-team, taking the Carson route, and at the end of six months and 
eighteen days reached the Golden Gate, having suffered many hardships and privations on 
the journey.  He was engaged in teaming, ditching and other occupations, in that State, 
for about four years, then returned home via the Isthmus of Panama, Cuba and New Orleans, 
bringing with him about $2,400, which he had earned while in the West.  After staying for 
a time in Tennessee, he came to Missouri and purchased land, on which he has since resided.  
In 1863 he enlisted in Company B, Eighth Missouri State Militia, and served until the close 
of the war, when he returned home, and began trying to retrieve his fallen fortunes, having 
been a heavy loser during the war.  He has been very successful, and is now the owner of 
about 1,600 acres of land, some of which is the most valuable in Hickory County.  He has 
been a Democrat since the death of the Whig party, and, in 1878, was elected by that party 
as county judge from the Eastern district, and was re-elected in 1882, thus showing how the 
people of the county appreciate his merits, his district being strongly Republican.  He at 
all times supports educational and religious enterprises, and is always public spirited and 
enterprising.  Martha Hicks, a daughter of Thomas M. Hicks, became his wife December 17, 
1857.  She was born in Wilson County, Tenn., in 1833 (July14), and, by Mr. Hickman, became 
the mother of seven children, who are living: Fanny, wife of George W. Morgan, of Kansas; 
Cora, wife of William Y. Bennett, of Hickory County, Mo.; Robert, a farmer of Hickory County; 
Nina, Charles, Horace and Joel N.  Alice, the second child, died when two years of age.  
Mrs. Hickman is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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