Pontotoc County, Mississippi
Genealogy and History
Peggy A. Young, County CoordinatorJeff Kemp - State Coordinator Denise Wells - Assistant State Coordinator
Ann Allen Geoghegan - Assistant State Coordinator
Monday, 23-Dec-2024 12:59:36 CST
W. P. A. History of Pontotoc County, Mississippi
CHAPTER 1 CONTINUED
Pioneer Families
The Original HICKS clan was strictly English and lived in England in its early history.
The colonial family of Hicks in this country traces an unbroken descent through five generations to a man, Ellis Hicks, who was knighted for his valor by the Black Prince of England, after the Battle of Poitiers in1356.
Generations: Ellis, first; John, second; Thomas, third; Baptist, fourth; James, fifth; and Thomas and Robert, sons of James, sixth. All the Hicks in this country are directly descended from Ellis Hicks.
In 1621 or 1630 Robert and Thomas Hicks, sons of James Hicks, came to this country from London England where they had lived, landing at Plymouth, being Puritan Englishmen. A descendant of one of these born in the State of New York in 1748, was a minister among the Society of Friends.
Later in the eighteenth century descendants of these early Hicks moved to what is now the state of Georgia and settled in Hancock County.
Arras Latimer Hicks was pioneer settler of the name in Pontotoc County. The sons of Arras Hicks were born in Hancock County, Georgia, about 1815 and moved to Wills Valley near Lookout Mountain, Alabama, in 1852; then to Wallersville, Mississippi, and later to Pontotoc County about 1856.
He married Miss Susan Potter, member of another prominent pioneer family in Union County, then a part of Pontotoc, in 1835. The Potters and the Hicks came to this country together.
Arras and Susan Hicks were prominent and useful pioneer citizens and contributed nobly, generously, and valiantly to the development of Pontotoc County in those trying times. To them were born ten worthy sons and daughters who grew to manhood and womanhood, reared families of their own, and contributed their part to the worthwhile achievements of the county of Pontotoc.
The oldest of this Hicks family was M. A. Hicks, who spent most of his life in the vicinity of Pontotoc. It may be said of him that he had in his make-up all the virtues of true manhood, that he was a fine citizen, that he lived honestly and honorably before God and man.
He loved the soil and devoted his life to agriculture. He served in the Confederate Army through the War Between the States. M. A. Hicks and his wife, Susan Hicks, reared three daughters, Ida Hicks, Bernice Hicks, and Asie L. Hicks, tow of whom, together with Misses Edna and Manda Ball and Mittie Hicks, daughters of C. B. Hicks, are the only survivors of the name in Pontotoc County at this date, November 1, 1937. Their lives speak for themselves.
Worthy descendants of the name still reside in this county and in many other parts of this and other states.
M. A. Hicks went to the War Between the States in Bradford's Battery, of Pontotoc County, serving officially during the latter part of the war, James A. Hicks, second son of that family also served in Bradford's Battery during the war. He later removed to Texas. (1)
(1)Asie L. Hicks, Pontotoc, Miss.
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