My Genealogy Hound

John M. Hickey has since 1903 been engaged in business in Creston as a dealer in farm implements and coal and has succeeded in building up a good patronage, which is indicative of his close application and his unwearied industry. He was born in Muscatine county, Iowa, in September, 1872, and as the name indicates, comes of Irish ancestry. His parents, John and Margaret (Dalton) Hickey, were both natives of the Emerald Isle. The former came to the United States about 1855 and settled in Muscatine county, Iowa where he purchased a tract of timber land that he cleared and developed and which he still owns, it being now a good farm property. He has prospered in his undertakings and today has a half section of rich and valuable land. He is now living retired from active business cares but still lives on the farm with his son at Muscatine at the age of seventy-four years. He is a member of the Catholic church and a democrat in his political views. His wife came to the United States about 1859 with her parents, who also became farming people of Muscatine county. She, too, is a communicant of the Catholic church. By their marriage there were born five children: Gregory, who is conducting a restaurant in Creston; Agnes, the wife of W. C. Healey, a farmer and extensive landowner of Muscatine county, who has ten hundred and fifty acres of land; Margaret, the wife of Joseph O’Brien, a resident farmer of Muscatine county; and Joseph, living on the old homestead with his father.

The other member of the family is John Hickey of this review, who was reared to farm life and attended the country schools prior to entering the high school at Muscatine, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. He then went to Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, where for five years he was engaged in the grain, coal and farm implement business, but preferring to make his home in the state of his nativity, he came to Creston in 1903 and here bought the farm implement and coal business of R. G. Silverthorn. He has since carried on the business and is meeting with prosperity, owing to the careful direction of his labors and his progressive business methods. He is one of the more recent additions to the business circles of the city but has already demonstrated his worth.

In 1900 Mr. Hickey was married to Miss Laura Geis, who was born in Spaulding township, this county, in 1878, and is a daughter of Nicholas and Maria Geis, who were farming people, now living retired in Creston. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Hickey has been blessed with but one child, Harold, who was born in 1901. The parents are communicants of the Catholic church and Mr. Hickey also affiliates with the Elks and with the Modern Woodmen of America. His study of the questions and issues of the day has led him to give his political support to the democratic party but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attraction for him, as he has always preferred to concentrate his energies upon his commercial interests. He now owns the business block in which he has his stock and his property interests include a modern home on West Montgomery street.