Among the commercial enterprises which contribute most essentially and substantially to the business interests and vitality of Grand Junction, the Grand Junction Lumber Company is entitled to a high regard for the extent of its operations and the straightforward and skillful manner in which it is managed. It was established in March, 1903, and incorporated with a capital stock of eighteen thousand dollars, as the successor to the lumber firm of Mayo & Endner, which had conducted the business, with some changes of partnership, for a number of years. The officers of the company at this time (1904) are M.W. Blakeslee, president; H.C. Bucklin, vice-president; and T. C. Hickman, secretary, treasurer and manager.
Mr. Hickman, who is the general director of its affairs, is a native of Sangamon county, Illinois, born on August 21, 1857, and the son of George T. and Elizabeth (Lyon) Hickman, who were born at Shelbyville, Kentucky, and became pioneers at Sangamon county, Illinois, where they were married, and where they passed their days after their marriage, the father dying there in 1888 and the mother in 1892. They were prosperous farmers and stood high in their section of the state. The father was an associate of Abraham Lincoln in boyhood and young manhood, and although born and reared in Kentucky, was an ardent Republican. The son, T.C. Hickman, grew to manhood on the farm in his native county, and there received a public-school education, afterward entering the Illinois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, but owing to failing eyesight he did not complete his course. He taught school five years in Illinois, and in 1881 moved to Lyons, Nebraska, where he again engaged in teaching for five years. In 1886 he moved to Craig, Nebraska, and during the next five years was in the drug business there. At the end of that period he sold out and started an enterprise in the lumber and grain trade which he conducted five years. In 1896 he came to Colorado and located at Grand Junction, where he was employed in the lumber yard of P.A. Rice until 1903, when he became a member and manager of the Grand Junction Lumber Company, with which he is still connected, as has been noted. In politics he is a stanch and unyielding Republican, but not an active partisan or party worker although in 1898 he was the nominee for county treasurer, but was defeated at the election. He belongs to the Masonic order and is at present the master of his lodge. He also belongs to the Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. On December 29, 1880, he was married to Miss Laura B. Ramey. They have two children, Cardwell L. and Mabel C.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.