People
JOHN S. HICKS
Some thirty years ago John S. Hicks, after learning the confectionary trade in Springfield, Mass., located in the city of Erie. He started a small confectionery and ice cream business. By strict application to business his trade grew until Hicks' ice cream was known to everybody in the city. Mr. Hicks began business without a penny in 1877, and after a few years of prosperity, selling ice cream and candy and peddling milk, he was enabled to purchase the present site on which his large ice cream plant is now located, 1216 and 1218 State St., the principal thoroughfare of the city. He has erected two three-story business houses, with large storerooms, which are rented to advantage and bring a handsome income. Besides this valuable property he has several other pieces of realty. Part of the State St. property is used by Mr. Hicks as a dwelling and ice cream plant. His plant is equipped with all the modern appliances and perfect in every detail. Besides several delivery wagons, he has recently purchased a large delivery automobile. Some idea of the volume of business done by the Hicks Ice Cream Co. can be gained from the amount of sugar used in the business in 1907 and 1908 over 3,000 pounds of sugar a year was used in the making of cream and quite $1,500 paid for ice. Mr. Hicks has recently retired from active participation in the business and will rest from the arduous labors he has put forth these many years. His life has been a busy one, yet he has found time to serve two terms as Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Pennsylvania, and devotes much time to church work. He has been a Mason for forty years. His business career has been marked by honesty and sobriety and regardless of color he enjoys the confidence and respect of the business people of Erie. He has been greatly assisted in his business by his excellent wife, to whom he gives unstinted credit for whatever success he has achieved in business. Mr. Hicks is estimated to be the wealthiest Negro in Western Pennsylvania.
Source: Transcription from the book, Pennsylvania Negro Business Directory, published in 1910; located on the website, Hathitrust Digital Library (http://www.hathitrust.org), accessed 26 January 2026.