BIOGRAPHY: John S. WICKS, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 63-4
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JOHN S. WICKS, one of the public-spirited and progressive business men of South 
Fork, is a son of Thomas H. and Maria (Soady) Wicks, and was born in Cornwall, 
in the southwestern part of England, December 27, 1856.
     The Wicks are a very old English family, who trace their ancestry back, in 
the history of England, over nine hundred years, to the time of the Danes and 
their struggles to conquer the Saxons. The Wicks family, in all probability, 
located first in Wales and then removed south to Cornwall, where they have had 
their ancestral home for untold generations. Members of the family were 
doubtless at the battle of Hastings, took part in the Crusades and fought in the 
war of the Roses. They were under Elizabeth, the Stuarts, Cromwell and Orange, 
and finally, in the opening of the eighteenth century, came under the rule of 
the present House of Brunswick.
     John Wicks, the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a 
tin miner, a trade which had been followed by his ancestors back as far as any 
authentic history can be obtained of them. John Wicks married, and four of his 
five sons came to America -- Alfred, dying in England; John Wicks, Jr., the 
eldest son, who was a miner, landed in this country after a voyage of sixty-four 
days, on the "Good Intent", and went to Michigan where he became a boss in the 
copper mines, and, after discovering the great Chapin copper ore mine, settled 
at Iron mountain, at which place he is now serving as justice of the peace. 
William Wicks, upon coming to America, first settled at Ontonagon, on Lake 
Superior, in the extreme north of Michigan, but soon removed to South Carolina, 
where he married and reared a family, and was killed in a mine when he was fifty 
years of age. Joseph Wicks, the third son, made two trips to this country before 
settling, which he did first in New Jersey, and then at Johnstown, which he left 
in 1881, to come to South Fork, where he owns property, and is superintendent of 
A. I. Hawes' fire-clay mines. Thomas H. Wicks, the youngest son, never came to 
America. He was born in Hayler, county of Cornwall, England, and died in that 
country August 24, 1889, aged sixty-five years. He was a tin miner in early 
life, and afterwards was in the employ of the Great Western Railroad company of 
England. He was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and married Maria 
Soady, daughter of John Soady, of his native country. Their children were: 
Edwin, who has been in this country for eighteen years, and in 1883 was the only 
one of ten miners who were precipitated one hundred and twenty-five-feet by a 
Michigan mine cave-in, that was taken out alive; John S., subject; Thomas, a 
resident of South Fork since 1882, where he has been engaged in mining ever 
since; Rev. Alfred, pastor of the Chadwick Methodist church of Illinois; William 
H., and Rutland, who are printers by trade and have been in Pennsylvania since 
1889, Bertha, Annie and Herbert, who still reside in Cornwall, England, with 
their mother.
     John S. Wicks attended the public schools of Cornwall, and at an early age 
entered the mines with his father, working there until he was seventeen years of 
age. He then served for seven years as a fireman on the Great Western railroad 
of England, his last run being between Exeter and London. Leaving England at 
twenty-four years of age, he came to New York city and soon went to Iron 
mountain, Michigan, where he served as department engineer at the mines until 
1883, when he came to South Fork and entered the employ of the Argyle Coal 
company, with whom he remained up till 1887. In that year Mr. Wicks engaged in 
the music business, which he has followed profitably ever since. His 
establishment is on the corner of Argyle and Grant streets, and he carries a 
large and well-assorted stock of pianos, organs, bicycles and sewing machines. 
Within the last two years he has opened a clothing and gentlemen's furnishing 
department on the  second floor, and his usual success has accompanied him in 
that line, where he has already established a good business. He is a pleasant, 
agreeable and well-informed man of excellent business qualifications.
     On November 11, 1886, Mr. Wicks married Sadie E. Pringle, daughter of 
Philip W. Pringle, of Pringle Hill, this county. Their union has been blessed 
with six children:  Annie, Victor John, Juniata Hope, Carrie, Leon, and William 
Lowell.
     Intelligent, active and energetic, John S. Wicks has already made his mark 
at South Fork, where he is useful along several lines. He is a member and 
treasurer of Conemaugh Valley Conclave, No. 388, Improved Order of Heptasophs, 
and a member, trustee and organist, for twelve years, of South Fork Methodist 
Episcopal church, of whose Sunday-school he has been superintendent for the last 
three terms.
     In the sphere of political life, he is a staunch republican, and enjoys 
public confidence as well as commanding party support. He was elected as justice 
of the peace in 1891, and two years later received a further mark of political 
and civil preferment at the hands of his fellow-citizens by being elected 
burgess of South Fork.