Blog Post 3: Hicks Hollar

It was almost a hundred years ago during the prohibition when my great great grandparents on my fathers side, William Henry and Jenny Hicks, moved from Tennessee to a small valley on the North East corner of New Philadelphia in a location that used to be the county dump.  There was a very small log cabin that they were able to get with what little money they had...

You may ask why did they travel such a long ways in the 1920's to get to a place like New Phila though?

Well, Henry had been a revenuer in Tennessee, and they would hold court in the one room, dirt floor log cabin that they called home.  They was one particular evening when they were holding court for some moonshiners, and a knife fight broke out.  "One of the men had his throat slashed, and my grandpa (Frank Hicks) at three years old could always remember that man laying on the floor and the blood pouring out of his throat on to the dirt... That was when Jenny told Henry 'Enough is enough- we are taking the family to Ohio.' where her parents lived." said my dad as he recalled the story his grandfather told him.

Jenny's parents home is till sitting there, and is lived in by Ward Hicks and his wife Betty, the son and daughter in law of my great grandfather Frank Hicks.

There home was always filled with children.  Jenny and Henry had thirteen of them.  They were only blessed enough to raise nine due to the other four passing during childbirth or within the first year, and there was twenty-five years difference between the youngest and oldest.  "Grandpa always said up until he was about ten years old he thought a woman just naturally had a baby grow out of her hip, because he could never remember a time when he didn't see a baby on his mom's hip." said my dad.  They had six boys and three girls in the three bedroom home they lived in.

A boys room.  A girls room.  And of course, their room.

A lot of people.  Not a lot of room.

My great grandfather, Frank, being the oldest always worked, and in the ninth grade he quit school.  The family was in real trouble during the long and gruesome days of the Great Depression.  Well, Frank knew the county operated a coal mine on the other side of the hillside the lived on.  He figured that if he dug long enough and deep enough he may hit coal on there side as well.  He went to the dump, and crafted his own flat wheel barrow own out of a wheel rim, a railroad spike, and some fat 2x4's.

Frank dug.

And he dug.

And he dug some more.

A year went by and he finally hit coal.  "It's unimaginable by todays standards to think as a fourteen year old boy he did all that... Grandpa was a tall man- 6ft 2in.  Jet black hair- he was a real handsome man.  Most of that mine was never more than 4-5ft tall, and he used to joke, 'That one seem of coal I once dug was so skinny I used to have to drill a whole in my lunch box just to get my sandwich out.' Meaning it was so short in there he couldn't even open his lunch box."  my dad said with a big smile.

Soon after Frank was out of high school the bank was going to foreclose on the farm.  He was back in the mine one day and heard machinery and people talking through one of the walls.  They then went to the county engineers, and told them they thought the county had cut into their property to get coal. The engineers didn't believe them and told them to go on their way.

So with a compass and a carbide light, these two "uneducated coal miners" went into the county mine after it closed for the night.  Grandpa Courtman, Jenny's dad, would send Frank as far as he could until the carbide light would disappear.  They then would take a compass reading.  They would continue this over and over again until they finally had a map drawn out.  With the map they drew out they believed they had proven the county was digging and stealing coal off their property.

They brought there map to the county again.  This time with enough proof, the county sent out their high end tech at the time with their own crew of surveyors to draw out their own map...  Grandpa Courtman and Frank, being only five feet off, were right.  The county then gave them $1,200 then for the coal they had taken.  They owed $1,000 on the farm, and were then able to pay it off before the bank was planning to kick them out.  "Grandpa always talked about the day they went to pay off the farm.  They stopped at a general store on the way home.  Jenny got brand-new fabric to make all the girls new dress and the boys new britches, and Henry got a sack of candy for each of the kids... It was highlight for him."  My dad said.  For years they plowed the farm with a blind mule, and so they also got hillside plow...  They felt they hit the big time with the coal money.

Frank operated that coal mine for several years.  He didn't have my grandfather, Dennis Hicks, until he was twenty-five years old, and my grandfather even drove a coal truck for him while he was in high school.  "Dad always said that if his dad taught him nothing else, he taught him how much a man could get done in one day.  He said that Frank Hicks was the hardest working man... The hardest working man he had ever seen."  recalled my dad with tears in his eyes.  He mined that coal for a long time, it was back breaking work, and he never denied a bag of coal to a man that needed it.  Up till the day he died he still knew the name of every person that owed him a nickel for a fifty pound bag of coal.

After the coal mining business he started the roofing company, Hicks Industrial Roofing, that is here in New Philadelphia to this day.  It has been passed down three generations now.  The fourth is in training, and fifth has been born and says he wants to be a "Hicks Roofer."

That valley where Jenny and Henry settled almost a hundred years ago not only was a humble beginning, but the beginning of a history our family treasures.  That valley is called Hicks Hollar/ Hicks Avenue now.  Six of the homes in this treasured valley all belong to descendants of Jenny and Henry including my family and I.  Though this little valley is treasured by us Hicks', many of us Hicks' have ventured out like Jenny and Henry did.  Some have gone to London, England and the Philippine's to live and some have made it big in business.  We each carry the inspiration our ancestors gave us, and proudly wear our last name as we come from the blessed Hicks family.


Interview with my dad, Mike Hicks.

Richard 

Richard is a 22 year old that lives in Tuscawras county in Ohio. His life was plenty normal. Married parents and two sisters. But it was also very different. 

Richard grew up unaware of something that made growing up a little harder. 

He found out he had autism at age 21 the same time his son was diagnosed before then he had been misdiagnosed bipolar. 

He said "it was a challenge growing up, it was hard to make 

friends and hard to communicate with others in general. I wasn't in the right classes I should have been in in school." Richard went to a school for bad or troubled students because he acted up because he wasn't in the proper environments. 

"My home situation wasn't much better, it wasn't the environment someone on the spectrum should be in." 

  

Often times he went to the Bolivar Dam to escape all the commotion and hardships he was facing and all the things he didn't understand. He found the sound of the rushing water to be calming.  

Growing up his family wasn't very close, his older sister had been going through a lot of things and him and his younger sister didn't get much attention and got away with more things then they should have. His family is now very close and talk to each other every day. He feels better and happier now that his family has grown together and became closer. 

Richard doesn't have much of an opinion on the community aspect of growing up. He said that he felt that he wasn't apart of his community. 

He said that people scared him and hid a lot. He had sensory issues that caused him to have panic attacks in public and would have to leave before he was suppose to. 

This video explains a lot of what it feels like for someone for with Autism and sensory processing disorder. It's not perfect but it is one of the most accurate ones. As someone who also has autism and sensory processing disorder I would have to agree. We found this video on YouTube on The National Autistic Awareness page. 

Richard now feels like he is more apart of the community and is doing much better being a member of society and is more comfortable being apart of it. 

Blog #3

My Grandfather

This is my grandfather Randy Lawton. He is 62 years old and has lived in Newcomerstown, Ohio all his life. He owned a heating and cooling company and has built many houses in this town. He was an avid carpenter as his houses were very well designed and my family currently lives in one of the houses he built, which he also dug a pond behind the house that I live in.

He built 3 identical houses side by side on Beagle Club Road, which he started to build the first house by hand in 1994. He said, “I am very proud of the houses that I built and all my past work, it has provided my family a place to live and made myself a living as well.’’

When he started to build the house I live in now, I used to hang around with him while he was building it. He hooked up a small television because there was electricity running to the house and made me a chair out of a cardboard box. I had a blast.

He is currently working on his fourth house, he is building it for himself and his family and is planning on retiring after the house is complete. He has done a ton of work in his time and has helped many people. We are all so proud of him.

Happiness is Actually Very Simple

MaryAnn is my regular customer, she has visited my restaurant at least once a week for the past few years. Sometimes, she is with friends and sometimes, she is alone. Since a few years ago, she has come less often than before because of some health issues. She has cancer and receives continuous chemotherapy. The medication caused the skin of her hands to turn blue and purple, but despite this, she always wore beautiful red nail polish. Every time I saw her, she was dressed up beautifully, even when she was in a wheelchair. She always smiles kindly and you simply can not tell she is a cancer patient. She always with positive energy and I really like her optimism about life.

 One day, I had a chance to sit with her when she was alone, and we had a long conversation where I get to know her better. MaryAnn was born in 1935. She got married right after she graduated high school. After she married, she had produced five children. She never had a job and stayed home with her children. Her daily routine is cleaning up the house and preparing the food for the family. She always cooked incredible dinners for her husband while he was busy with more important things. She also took full responsibly in the education of her children, because her husband was busy working to support the family.

  MaryAnn has never driven in her life. When she was in high school, her girlfriend took her out on a Saturday night, and they almost got hit by a truck.  Since then, she dared not drive anymore, which made her never independent from her husband. Her husband passed away twenty years ago. Her children take turns taking care of her. She has a few good life-long friends, her friends used to take her out to shopping, dining, and to bingo.  Since they are all past the age of eight, they barely hang out together. A few years ago, MaryAnn sold her house and moved to a nursing home. She is happy to stay in the nursing home because she had her own suite, and they take care her daily. When she plans go anywhere, they drive her.

I asked her if there is anything that she regrets in her life. She laughed and said that she had before, but not anymore. She said, “When you come to be my age, you will understand health and happiness are the most important things. I will enjoy every moment I have.” I learned what she cares about most is to live her own life.

I respect her very much, especially her optimism. Our life can not be always being smooth, there are always various kinds of pressure and difficulties. We should learn to face life with an optimistic attitude. All difficulties can be overcome, and we must cherish our lives anyway.  I love a quote from Omar Khayyam, “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/omar_khayyam

https://www.brainyquote.com/photos_tr/en/o/omarkhayyam/378553/omarkhayyam1-2x.jpg

Always Have Hope

Picture of my grandma & my mom when
 my mom was in her coma

I believe everything always happens for a reason and not everything is as bad as it seems. My mother Regina McMorris would tell you exactly the same. She was born in Coshocton County on February 19th, 1969. When she was 17 years old, she was in a terrible motorcycle accident.

When my mom was growing up, she did not have a normal childhood. She was raised in a broken home. My grandpa and grandma always fought and they liked their liquor as well. They were very poor and did not have much. Since my mom's parents split up, she mainly lived with her mom. My grandma was constantly moving around and struggling to find work. My mom went to so many different schools when she was growing up. Being the new kid once would be hard but imagine being that new kid multiple times. She moved to so many different schools one year she ended up failing that year.

  Her motorcycle accident had happened in the summer of her junior year, 1987. She went down to Illinois with her boyfriend to see some of the family. Well one night before she had to come home, my mom and her boyfriend at the time wanted to go out and have some fun. They were drinking and decided to go on a motorcycle ride. They were riding when all of a sudden, he lost control of the bike. My mom went flying off the back, into the air, and landing on her head.

She was first taken to a Lincoln Hospital, then transferred to a Springfield hospital. When they realized how severe her injuries were, she was then was life-flighted to a Trauma Center in Illinois. She was there six weeks when she was in her coma. The first three weeks she was in a deep coma. Regina added "They told my mother that I would be a vegetable the rest of my life." She came out of the deep coma into a semi coma. Once she came out of that, she had to learn how to do everything all over again. How to talk, write, eat, walk, dress, brush her teeth, etc. She still had the majority of her memory, some things before the accident are still a blur though. She missed her whole junior year of high school, but she went back to school the following year. She graduated in 1989 in Canal Fulton,Ohio.

Picture of my dad in the back, my mom in the middle ,
and, my sister on the right and I on left.

Today she lives in Coshocton County, has been married for 27 years, has a nice home, and 2 children of her own. She also works full time at a nursing home. If you would see her today, you would have no idea that she was in such a terrible accident. She overcame all the hard obstacles she had while growing up and during her recovery. She never gave up hope. Regina stated "Even though today might be a bad day, you never know what tomorrow is going to bring".

Blog 3: Natalie Lax

                                    My Mother, Natalie Lax

My mom and dad shortly after she moved to Dover


My mom, Natalie Lax (Goodman was her maiden name) grew up in the bustling city of Akron, Ohio up until she was 15 years old, when my Grandma Jackie decided to move here to the much quieter city of Dover in order to live in a more family friendly place. According to my mother, the sudden move made her very angry with my Grandma and she even begged her Akron friends parents to let her move in with them. To my mom who was only a teen at the time, a city like Dover simply meant that her "life was over". She enjoyed the fast-paced life she had in Akron and the never ending activities she could choose from. She at first viewed Dover to be a desolate place where nothing ever happened, but then she met my dad who quickly became her light at the end of the tunnel.

My dad started trying to woo my mom within days of seeing her for the first time in his Medieval Studies class in Dover High School in 1991. My mom even now describes my dad  as being "very persistent" during the beginning stages of their dating. My dad had quite the crush on her immediately and did not want my mother to move back to Akron, so he made every effort possible to show her that Dover, Ohio could be a cool place just like Akron. My mom has shared many memories of my dad showing her around the town and showing her the local treasures. Her favorite places he used to take her include Mary Zifer's pizza, Tuscora park, and Quaker Cinema.

Clearly my dad did something right because my mom eventually fell in love with him as well as this town, and they have stayed happily married right here for over a decade. She has expressed that she is thankful that my dad converted her from the city life to the suburb life, she enjoys the calmness and closeness of our community here very much. I think stories like my mothers matter because it shows that even if you did not grow up in a city like Dover, you can still learn to love the things about a small town. You can come to appreciate small town qualities such as community traditions (Dover vs. Phila football rivalry) and you can appreciate the fact that everyone knows eachother. Overall there are countless things you can love about this small community, and my mother's story is proof that truly anyone can grow to love living here.

Eddie Maple: Secretariat's Jockey

One of the jockeys that rode Secretariat lived in Carroll County. Eddie Maple is a very famous jockey and got inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Eddie Maple won his first race when he was 17 years old. He began his career in Ohio and West Virginia and moved on to New Jersey before establishing himself in New York in 1971.

Eddie Maple won the Belmont Stakes twice, rode to three upset victories of Forego on different horses and piloted Secretariat to victory in the last race of that champion’s career. In statistics since 1976, he had 217 graded stakes winners and 363 wins in all stakes. He led jockey standings for meetings at Saratoga and Aqueduct.Maple rode many horses for Woody Stephens, including Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo, on whom he scored in one of the three Metropolitan Handicaps the rider won. Eddie was riding Secretariat for his victory in the 1973 Canadian International

In addition to multiple victories in the Belmont, Suburban, and Met Mile, Maple won the Saranac Handicap seven times, the Hempstead (now the Ogden Phipps) and the Saratoga Special five times each, the Dwyer, Carter and Remsen four times each and the Futurity, Super Derby, Breeders’ Futurity, Manhattan and Delaware Handicap three times each.

Maple was voted the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award for 1995 and the Mike Venezia Memorial Award in 1998. Eddie Maple was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009.

This is very important to me because we came from the same small town and he Eddie made a name for himself. It makes me think that I can do big things like him even though we came from a small town.