My Genealogy Hound

John R. Hickey is a man who has attained considerable prominence in the affairs of Johnson County, Ark., for he is a man of excellent parts and has shown good judgment and tact in the management of his farm, in connection with which he operates a cotton-gin. He is a Tennessean, born in 1824, a son of James and Nancy (Baker) Hickey who removed from their native State of Tennessee to Arkansas in 1831, settling first in what is known as Bullfrog Valley, so called after an Indian chief of that name. They lived at this place for about four years, then came to the farm on which the subject of this sketch is now living on Little Piney Creek. At the age of twenty-one years John R. Hickey began doing for himself, and soon after enlisted in E. W. Patrick’s company, Yell’s regiment, and served in the Mexican War until its close, taking part in the battle of Buena Vista, the hardest battle of the war. At the end of twelve months he and his company were discharged, the term of enlistment having expired, and he returned to his home. In 1849 he was married to Miss Margaret Macon, who was born in Arkansas in 1834, to Abner and Elizabeth (Vaughn) Macon, by which lady he became the father of the following children: Alvin H., James M. (deceased), Sarah Elizabeth, C. M., Malinda A., G. A., William J., A. N., Nancy J. and John M. Mr. Hickey’s first purchase of land was 280 acres, 100 acres of which he improved and upon which he built a house, barn, other farm buildings, a school-house, and a church. This tract of land he afterward sold, and now conducts a farm of forty acres, in connection with which he is doing a ginning and milling business, his mill being run by water power. The capacity of his gin is six bales per day, and that of his mill eighty bushels of corn. Upon the opening of the Rebellion he enlisted in Capt. Hughey’s battalion, and served until the war closed, when he returned home. He was quartermaster-sergeant of his company, and was in a number of important battles, among which may be mentioned the fights at Blackburn and Prairie du Chien. He was married to his present wife in 1882, she being Mrs. Polly A. Murray, relict of Henry Murray.