Athens Weekly Review
May 6, 1926
James Reginald Hicks
"From messenger boy to bank president." Sounds like a
fairy book
story, but is true in the case of the subject of this sketch.
James
Reginald Hicks was born May 4, 1869 at Chatfield, Navarro county.
At
the age of seven he moved with his parents to Corsicana where he
received his schooling. In 1884 he started his life's work as an
apprentice and messenger boy with the Western Union Telegraph Co.
Three years later he was made manager and a year later he cast
his lot
with the Cotton Belt Railway as operator. He served successively
as
cashier at Hillsboro, as agent at Blooming Grove and at many
other
points during his twenty-six years. For nine years he was agent
at
Chandler.
On September 15, 1895 Mr. Hicks was married to Miss Vida Rachel
Cade, a native of the Chandler community and member of one of the
oldest families on the county. The have no children but have been
instrumental in rearing six orphan children.
Mr. Hicks was one of the organizers of the Citizens Guaranty Bond
Bank of Chandler which later absorbed the First State Bank of
that city.
When he resigned from the Cotton Belt to become cashier of the
bank he was one of the oldest men in point of service with the
road
and as such had prior claim on most any station he desired. In
1920
he was made president of the bank and is at present serving in
that
capacity. It is due to his business acumen that the band was
placed
on a sound basis and at the present time enjoys the reputation of
being one of he soundest and best governed financial institutions
in
the county.
Mr. Hicks has been very active in Masonic circles. He is a
charter
member of Chandler Masonic Lodge and has been honored with every
station in that lodge. He is a member of he Christian church and
also
holds membership in the Odd Fellows lodge. In politics he is a
Democrat but he is the kind that does not wear the proverbial
brass
collar-believing in the right of every man to do his own
thinking.
In recounting the progressive citizens of the county none offer a
better
example as a pattern for the young man of today than that of the
life of
J. R. Hicks-- a self-made man.
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