My Genealogy Hound

FRANK WEAVER WICK.
Among the successful business men of Creston, men of enterprise and determination, who win prosperity through well directed efforts and straight forward dealing, is numbered Frank Weaver Wick, junior partner of the real-estate firm of Tedlock & Wick. He was born on a farm on section 12, Sand Creek township, Union county, Iowa, and is descended from German ancestry.

His grandfather, John Christian Wick, was born in Baden, Germany, in 1815, and at the age of fourteen years emigrated to America, settling in Ohio. Subsequently he removed to Illinois, where he was married to Mary A. Holly, a native of Alabama. In 1845, when Iowa was yet a territory, John C. Wick removed to Davis county and later located at Burlington, where he held a position of trust for several years with the Skank Packing Company. Having accumulated a few hundred dollars he removed with his family to Union county, settling on section 2, Sand Creek township. The journey from Burlington was made in ox wagons and, owing to bad roads and the necessity of fording streams, required several weeks. Upon his arrival in this county Mr. Wick entered a small tract of land and with his oxen and the assistance of his eldest sons he commenced subduing the wild prairie, which he soon converted into rich fields, producing large harvests of corn and wheat. He was prosperous from the beginning and soon acquired several hundred acres of good land, which he afterward divided among his children, retaining only the home place for himself. In 1874 his wife died, leaving a family of nine children, as follows: Adam, Henry, George W., Sebastian, James, Alice, William, Samuel and Thomas, of whom George, Sebastian, William, Samuel and Thomas are still living, the first mentioned being a resident of Dayton, Washington, while Sebastian lives on a farm near Thayer; Samuel and Thomas reside in Clarke county, Iowa; and William lives on his farm near the old home in Sand Creek township. Of this family, Henry and George were soldiers of the Civil war. In July, 1876, John Christian Wick was again married, his second union being with Mellissa Woodruff, who died about three years later. To this union were born two children, Anna and Eva, but the former died in infancy. Eva is married and resides in Afton, Iowa. A few years after the death of his second wife Mr. Wick was married to Catherine Mateer, of Afton, who still survives him. The old log house which he built in pioneer times and which was long one of the old landmarks of the county, has been recently torn down. He was one of the pioneers not only of Union county but of the state and in the various localities where he lived contributed in substantial measure to the improvement and upbuilding of the community.

His son, Henry Wick, was born in Shawneetown, Illinois, May 30, 1843, and was but two years of age when his parents removed to Davis county, Iowa. When five years of age he accompanied them to Burlington, Iowa and in 1854 the family arrived in Union county. His educational privileges were limited, owing to the fact that his youth was spent upon the frontier but his training at farm labor was not meager. From his father he received forty acres of land and throughout his business life carried on general agricultural pursuits, meeting with a creditable and desirable measure of success. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted in Company H, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, when that company was organized at Afton, continuing with the regiment until captured at Jenkins Ferry. For ten months he was incarcerated in the rebel prison at Tyler, Texas, and he met the usual experiences of one who does duty upon the battlefield. After being mustered out he returned to his farm in Sand Creek township, and was long classed with the honored and representative pioneers and citizens of the community. During his early days in the county the Indians were his playmates, a band of five hundred of them being on Twelve Mile creek near where the Wick family settled. On the 31st of July, 1865, Henry Wick wedded Martha Jane Brown, who was born in Macoupin county, Illinois November 4, 1844, a daughter of Perry Pembleton Brown, a native of Virginia, who was a blacksmith by trade. In 1854 he arrived in Union county, Iowa, settling in the town of Highland, where he conducted a hotel while the village existed. He afterward followed farming until his death. His wife, Mrs. Christina Jane (Walker) Brown, a native of Tennessee, has also passed away.

For many years Henry Wick gave his political allegiance to the democracy and later became a populist. He held a number of minor township offices and was always loyal to the trust and confidence reposed in him. He held membership in the Evangelical Association, to which his widow yet belongs. His death occurred May 9, 1900, and thus passed away one of Union county’s most worthy and respected pioneers, who from a very early period of development of this part of the state contributed to its upbuilding and growth.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wick were born twelve children: John Perry, who married Etta Coffy and follows farming on the old homestead in Sand Creek township; George Henry, who died in childhood; Rosetta Jane, the wife of Leonard Suiter, of Portland, Oregon; Charles Anthony, who resides with his mother at Afton, Iowa; William Sylvester and Lillie Alma, both of whom passed away in childhood; David Ezra, who married Lydia Lathem and makes his home at Vegreville, Alberta, Canada; Frank Weaver, of this review; Bertha May, residing at Greeley, Colorado; James Harold, who wedded Goldie Ballard and is proprietor of a rug factory at Creston, Iowa; Herbert Tecumseh, who was joined in wedlock to Miss Lulu Blair and is an agriculturist of Pleasant township, this county; and Ola Herrett, who died in infancy.

Frank Weaver Wick, whose name introduces this record, spent his boyhood on the home farm, the usual experiences of agricultural life falling to his lot. He was educated in the district and public schools and in the college of Afton and afterward engaged in teaching in the country schools for a time. Much of his attention, however, was given to general agricultural pursuits up to 1903, when he came to Creston, where he has since engaged in the real-estate business as the junior partner of the firm of Tedlock & Wick. They sell and exchange real-estate of all kinds, operating in any part of the country, and since entering this field of activity Mr. Wick has thoroughly acquainted himself with realty values in this part of the state and with the possibility of appreciation or diminution in price. He has thus been enabled to make judicious purchases and profitable sales and is conducting a successful business as a real-estate dealer.

On the 18th of December, 1901, Mr. Wick was married to Miss Lizzie Vivian Foster, a native of Osceola, Iowa, and a daughter of John Wesley and Susanna (Johnson) Foster. The father is now deceased and the mother has since wedded Jasper Deaver, a resident farmer of Jones township. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wick have been born two children, Bertha Vivian and Ronald Foster. They own a nice home in Creston and Mr. Wick also has property interests in Canada.

Mr. Wick is now second lieutenant of Company I of the Fifty-fifth Iowa National Guard, of which he has been a member for three years. The military record of the family is most creditable and one of which they have every reason to be proud. Tradition says that the great-great-grandfather participated in some important battles and it is definitely known that the great-grandfather was an officer of the German army and participated in the battle of Waterloo. John Christian Wick, the grandfather, served his adopted country as a soldier in the Mexican war, while Henry Wick was a valiant defender of the Union cause during the dark days of the Civil war. Now his son, Frank W. Wick, has had thorough military training with the National Guard and is well known in the military circles of the state. Politically a republican, he is interested in the growth and success of the party, yet does not desire office for himself. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen Camp, while both he and his wife are members of the United Evangelical church. The family have always stood for progress in material, intellectual, social and moral lines and the work instituted by the grandfather for the improvement of the county and taken up by the father, is now being carried on by the son, who is numbered among the valued citizens of Creston and Union county.