Marcus Lafayette Hicks

MARCUS LAFAYETTE HICKS, son of Talbert II., and Comfort (Britton) Hicks. natives, respectively, of Tennessee and North Carolina, was born in Monroe County, Tenn., December 25, 1846. He was educated at the village schools; began clerking in a store at Merry Valley, East Tennessee, when thirteen years of age, and in February, 1862, entered the army as a member of Monsaret's Light Artillery, which in 18153 consolidated with the Second Alabama Battery, and 1864 with Barrett's Tenth Missouri Battery. From first to last he was in the battles of Farmington, Corinth, Iuka, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, New Hope Church, around Atlanta, and, finally, at Columbus, Ga., surrendered to General Wilson. He returned to Tennessee and worked a while in a tanyard; came South with horses and mules, and in the spring of 1866, at Morrisville, Ala., apprenticed himself to a millwright. He remained at that trade about three years, located at Oxford as a clerk two years, and at the town of Bowden, Ga., in May, 1870, married Miss Lizzie Morris. In the following year, at Oxford, he began work in a sash, door and blind factory, and from there, in 1879, came to Gadsden. At this place, as a member of the firm of Vowell, Bacchus & Hicks, he manufactured sash, doors and blinds a short time, when he was made superintendent of the planing department of the Red Jacket Mills. After the death of Mr. Kittrell, in partnership with Mr. Standifer, Mr. Hicks purchased the Red Jacket Mills, which in six months thereafter (1882) burned down. In 1883 the large works of Kinnebrew & Hicks were started. In April, 1884, Kinnebrew withdrew from the firm and was succeeded by Mr. Gwinn, and in March, 1887, Mr. Lane came into the firm. which is now Gwinn, Hicks & Lane. It is one of the most enterprising concerns and one of the most successful at Gadsden.

Mr. Hicks is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fellows, and K. of P. fraternities.

The senior Mr. Hicks, a carpenter by trade, participated in the Indian War of 1836, and died soon after the late war between the States, at the age of seventy years. He was the son of Charles Hicks, one of the pioneers of East Tennessee. His wife died about 1852. They reared seven children, viz.: George (deceased), Jane (Mrs. John Edwards), Asberry H., Amanda (Mrs. John C. Mason), Sarah (Mrs. James Belt), Nancy Ann (Mrs. Elisha Webb), and the subject of this sketch. Asberry H., a farmer of Monroe County, Tenn., was a soldier in the Mexican War, and served in the last war as a member of an artillery company.