JAMES J. HICKS was born in Person County, N. C., September 2, 1820, to William and Elizabeth (Lumsford) Hicks, both natives of North Carolina, and of English descent. William Hicks was educated and married in his native State, where he owned a farm upon which he resided most of his life, but was not himself engaged in farming. At the age of twenty-five, he began the study of medicine and afterward practiced that profession for many years. Later in life, he became quite a politician, and at one time was sheriff of Person County. His death occurred February 19, 1849, in his eightieth year. He and wife were life long and devoted members of the Primitive Baptist Church. While he was sheriff he lost all his property in consequence of having levied on some negro property, without taking the property in possession, or taking a delivery bond. James J. Hicks, the youngest of his father's family, was employed on his father's farm until he was twenty-two years old. He was then employed at overseeing in North Carolina for two years, after which, in 1846, he came to Kentucky, where he was engaged in the same business for some four years. He then bought a partially improved farm in Henderson (now Webster County), upon which he resided for twenty-three years. In 1873, he sold this place and bought another, two miles north of Providence, where he was extensively and successfully engaged in farming and stock raising until the fall of 1884, when he sold out and removed to Providence. He was married, November 10, 1842, to Miss Anna Peed, a native of Person County, N. C. Ten children were the fruit of this union, of whom three sons and three daughters are living. Mrs. Hicks is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Mr. Hicks belongs to no church, and in politics, is a Democrat.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Page 1035.