Webster County, West Virginia    Biography of Thomas H. HICKS

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Submitted by Valerie Crook, <vfcrook@trellis.net>, March 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., 
Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 91

THOMAS M. HICKS has been successfully engaged in the
general merchandise business at Webster Springs, Webster
County, since 1905, has a modern and well equipped estab-
lishment, and his policies have been such that he has devel-
oped a substantial and prosperous enterprise.

Mr. Hicks was born in Braxton County, West Virginia,
January 15, 1877, and is a son of Thomas F. and Mariah
(Berry) Hicks, both now deceased, the father having been
born in Nelson County, Virginia, in 1839, and the mother
having been born in what is now West Virginia, in 1846.
The father engaged in farm enterprise in Braxton County,
whence in 1877 he removed with his family to Nicholas
County, where he continued as a successful agriculturist
and stock-grower until his death, he having been a citizen
of influence and having held various offices of public trust
in that county. He was a democrat in polities, and both he
and his wife held membership in the Baptist Church. They
became the parents of ten children: Bettie is the wife of
M. A. Boso; Bertie is the wife of O. F. Williams; Lee is a
progressive farmer in Wood County, this state; James H.
is a resident of the State of Oklahoma; Nora is the wife of
James N. Walker; Ida is the wife of H. D. Walker; Thomas
M., of this sketch, was next in order of birth; Ernie is a
popular teacher in the schools of Greenbrier County; Lovie
is the wife of C. W. Robertson; and John D. is a resident
of Greenbrier County.

Thomas M. Hicks was an infant at the time of the
family removal to Nicholas County, where he was reared on
the home farm and received the advantages of the public
schools, his studies having been thereafter continued in one
of the normal schools of the state and he having been a suc-
cessful teacher in the schools of Nicholas and Webster
counties prior to establishing his present business at
Webster Springs. He owns the building in which his busi-
ness is conducted, and also owns and occupies one of the
attractive homes of the village. He is a democrat, and he
and his wife are zealous members of the local Baptist
Church, in which he is a deacon. He has been a valued
member of the Board of Education during virtually the
entire period of his residence at Webster Springs, and he is
a director of the local banking institution. In the Masonic
fraternity his basic affiliation is with Addison Lodge No.
116, A. P. and A. M., of which he is a past master, and he
is a member also of the local Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons, as is he also of the Commandery of Knights
Templars and of the Temple of the Mystic Shrine in the
City of Charleston.

In 1898 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hicks and
Miss May Stanard, who likewise was born and reared in
this state and who attended normal school prior to her
marriage. Of the four children of this union the eldest is
Areta, who attended the University of West Virginia for
three years and who is, in 1922, a teacher in the Junior
High School at Webster Springs; Dana M. graduated from
the Webster Springs High School and attended the State
University eighteen months; Elma is a student in high
school; and Mary Lee is in the third grade of the local
schools.