This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/Cei.2ACEB/4303 Message Board Post: The following is an excerpt from an article on "New River Notes" website. THE HICKS FAMILY OF RUSSELL COUNTY By Roy L. Sturgill There were two branches of the Hicks family in Russell County in its early years and possibly before its formation in 1786. They were not related as far as this researcher has been able to find. In the records of Russell County can be found many transactions by Claiborne, Nathaniel, Elias and other Hicks'. There was a Reuben Hicks, but records are hazy concerning him, since most early records were destroyed by fire. It would appear that Claiborne and Nathaniel, (who were possibly brothers) and Elias contributed the most to the history of Russell County. Somewhere it is written by the ancients: "That the whole human specie is to be regarded as one common family, the high, the low, the rich and poor, all created by the same Almighty parent are placed in the world to aid, support, and protect each other." How true it is that it takes all these to make history. The Hicks family have played their part in this drama so well, they have rightfully earned their place in the history of their beloved county. The Hicks family of which I write were not rich in money, land and other worldly goods, nor educated as we think of education today. But they were wealthy and educated in so many other ways. They lived it seemed, for the good they might be to others. Walking miles to sit up with the sick, work the crops of their ailing neighbors until they were on their feet, and if necessary dig a final resting place for them and drop a tear at this passing. They were rich in the ways to survive in primitive surroundings, how to cure and preserve food before the days of refrigeration. Theirs was a richness of how to work with their hands. Educated in the ways to make-do with what they had; to name a few; rive boards and palings for fencing and house covering, in the dry areas how to dig and plaster a cistern for a water supply, experts in raising of log houses, ever log and corner was laid level and true, at clearing land the Hicks' were unsurpassed. In working with wood the Hicks family ha! d a talent that few are blessed with, such as: making handles for farm implements, gun stocks, wooden mauls for splitting fence rails, firewood, and pounding a froe or wedge. Washington County records show that Nathaniel Hicks bought forage for State use September 19, 1782. On May 20, 1783, he paid 305 pounds for beef for use by the Washington County militia in Powell Valley. In 1849 Nathaniel was employed in furnishing charcoal for a iron smelter called White's Forge on Big Moccasin Creek. The charcoal was made by burning hardwood. Claiborne and others of the Hicks Clan were engaged in the hardwood gathering. It has long been told that Claiborne Hicks had no equal in chopping and piling the wood in cords. Nathaniel has a number of descendants still living in Russell County near where the wood was gathered, and not far from the site of the old forge.