from C.W. Hick's Civil War Questionaire
Tradition in our family is that a family of Hicks from England landed in Baltimore in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and one of the girls married Isaac Sheppard a noted cutlerist of that place. They migrated to Rockbridge county, Va. From there three brothers, Shadrach, Meshiac and Abednigo, (shortened to Shade, Mesh and Bed) moved to Sullivan Co., Tenn. amoung its earliest settlers.
On of them, Shade I believe, was the father of my great grandfather, John Hicks. He and Adam Houk married sisters, the former Comfort and the latter Mary Malone, and both moved to Sevier county, Tenn.
John Hicks' children were William, Isaac, John, Charles, George, Abraham, Shadrach and Sarah.
[Adam] Houk's children were Mary, Mary (Peggy), Rebecca, Flora, Sarah, Archimedes and John (Jack).
Both John Hicks and Adam Houk moved from Sullivan to Sevier county. There
John Hicks married his cousin, Peggy Houk,
George Hicks married Mary Houk
and my grandfather, Charles Hicks, married Sarah Houk, from whom, and my father I got most of the history of the families - father, Mark More Hicks.
Grandfather, Charles [Hicks] moved on Boyd's Creek in Knox county where my father was born, Feb.21, 1811. From Boyd's Creek grandfather moved to Louisville, Blount county, where George Milton was born in 1817. Other children, Albert, Rolston, Narcissa, were born either here on Boyd's Creek.
When the lands of the Hiwassee were put on sale in 1819 grandfather [Charles Hicks] entered a quarter section of land in Monroe county, six miles southwest from Madisonville, one mile from Chestua Campground, built a cabin and moved to it in Feb. 1820. Here two more children Eliza Crawford in 1823 and Wesley Jones in 1826. The latter was the author of Hicks Manuel of Chancery Practice which he mainly wrote at Madisonville, Tenn. where he practiced law from 1856 to 1869, when he went to Knoxville and formed a partnership with Judge George Brown, a former Monroe countian. He died in 1876 and his body rests in Gray Cemetery.
Four of grandfather's brothers, also, came to Monroe county in the same neighborhood, to wit: John, Abraham, Shade and George.
George [Hicks] however, settled in Madisonville, one of the first where the town was later located, and put up a horse power cotton gin. He was a fine cabinet maker and carpenter, as his father, John, had been before him.
Grandfather, Charles, and my father, Mark More, also did work of that kind. Two of George's sons, Geo. Wash. and James Crawford, followed the cabinet makers trade until their demise several years ago. That trade by hand craft has ceased.
The father of Adam Houk is said to have come from Bavaria, Germany and thereby hangs a story. He and his young wife were strong, protestants, in a Roman Catholic community. She visited a sick Roman Catholic cousin and found an image of the Virgin Mary set up at the gate to be prayed to for the recovery of the sick one. In contempt Mrs. Houk took a pair of scissors swinging to her apron string and clipped off the ears of the image. That was a crime against the law of the land for which they sought to arrest her. She hid out on the banks of a river until arrangements were made and they came to America.
William Hicks, son of John, was the father of the late Rev. William Hicks who was the father of Rev. W.W. Hicks of the Holston Conference, M.E. Church, South.
Isaac Hicks, son of John moved to Illinois and at last account one of his sons was a prominent lawyer and Judge there.
Sarah [Hicks], daughter of John Hicks, married William Stone, moved to Morganton, Blount co., then to near Chestua Campground, Monroe co., and both died and are buried there, where a large number of Hicks families are buried.
Rebecca Houk married George Millard, moved to Madisonville, where he built a house and lived several years, then moved to near Riceville, McMinn co. He was from Philadelphia, Pa.
Another daughter of Adam and Mary Malone Houk, Eliza [Houk], as I now remember married a Chandler, William, I think it was, and they raised a family in Sevier county.
One of the daughters married the late E.E. McCroskey of Knoxville.
John (Jack) Houk raised several children in Sevier co. by his first wife. The late Hon. Leonidas C. Houk of Knoxville, was his son by a second wife,
Arch. If Arch. Houk was ever married or left any descendants I never heard it mentioned. Like nearly all the Houk men he was a carpenter
