The prosperous and enterprising ranchman whose name heads this sketch is a brother of John Hickman, a sketch of whom will be found on another page of this work, and a son of Frederick and Elizabeth (Mount) Hickman. He was born near Strawberry Plains, in eastern Tennessee, on March 31, 1853, and was reared on a farm, attending the district schools when he could, and there receiving a limited education. He remained with his parents and worked on the farm in their interest until he was twenty-four. Living then in Missouri, he at that time began farming in that state for himself, and he continued his independent operations there ten years. In 1879 he moved to Ohio, where he attended the Preparatory Order schools at Findlay for three years, then entered the ministry, in which he remained eleven years, working in Iowa and Illinois. Owing to the failure of his wife’s health he was obliged to give up the ministry and come to Colorado. After a residence of one year in this state they returned to Illinois, but came back to Colorado in 1901 and then he bought the ranch on which he now lives in the vicinity of Rifle, Garfield county. It comprises forty acres, thirty-five of which are under cultivation in the ordinary crops of the neighborhood, but he makes a specialty of potatoes, and has the reputation of raising the best quality and largest yield per acre of this popular vegetable in the county. One unusual yield in recent years was one hundred and eight-five sacks, averaging in weight one hundred and thirteen pounds each, from seven-eighths of an acre of measured ground. He also has one thousand three hundred fruit trees, apples and peaches, all in good bearing order, the products of which bring in a handsome revenue. Mr. Hickman is a third-degree Freemason, an Odd Fellow, one of the Sons of Veterans, and a Knight of the Maccabees. In political faith he is a zealous Republican. He was married on March 20, 1879, to Miss Martha A. Myers, who was born on February 3, 1861, and is the daughter of William and Martha (Foster) Myers, natives of Tennessee who moved to Missouri when young and there passed the remainder of their lives farming and raising stock. Her father was a stanch Republican, and they had a family of six children, four of whom are living: Louisa, wife of D. Blevins, of Caldwell county, Missouri; Mary, wife of Marion F. Nickel, of Oklahoma; Martha A., wife of Mr. Hickman; and Rosa, wife of Samuel Stephenson, of Ray county, Missouri. The father died in 1875 and the mother in 1886. One child has been born to the Hickman household, a son named Charles W.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.