Oklahoma Genealogical Society

 

 

Territory Tales: The Ricks Family

 

From Oklahoma Genealogical Society Vol 24 Number 3; 1979

Transcribed to Electronic form by Jo White

 

 

This information was compiled by Mr. Van Estes, Altus, OK.  Submitted by Judy Henry, Harrah, OK, whose husband is Mr. Ira Estes’s great-grandson.

 

John H. Ricks was married to Elizabeth Sparks in approx. 1858 at Marietta, Georgia.  They moved to Cherokee County, Alabama about 1875.  John and Elizabeth Ricks had twelve children.  Their names were Henry, Wesley, Mary Cicily, Temperance (called Tempy), Joseph, William, Rebecca, Lee, Michael, Olen, Nora and Vernon.

 

In 1882, all except Mary Cicily moved to Kaufman Co., Texas. Mary Cicily married Ira Estes in Cherokee Co., Ala. On November 15, 1881.

 

In 1890. Wes and  Henry Ricks settled in Greer County, Texas.  By 1895, all the family but Rebecca and Mar Cicily had moved oft Oklahoma or Greer County, Texas.  Mary Cicily and her husband, Ira Estes, moved to Navajo in 1897.  Rebecca and her husband, Calvin Johns, arrived in Okla. in 1900.

 

[i]Greer County was declared a part of Oklahoma in 1896.  After that time all the family who were old enough settled on homesteads. 

 

About 1904 or 1905, John and Elizabeth Ricks, their sons Henry, Olen and Wesley’s family all went with the Blalock family to Old Mexico but came back to Greer County to spend the rest of their lives in Oklahoma.

 

Members of the family who are buried at Navajo are:

 

·        John H. Ricks          : 1837-1916

·        Sarah Elizabeth Ricks : 1944-1924

·        Mary Sparks : 1829-1897 (Mother of Sarah Eliz. )                  

·        C.L. (Lee) Ricks : 1876-1941

·        Nora Ricks Showalter : 1883-1928

·        Harris C. Ricks : 1879-1905

·        Ira Wyeth Estes : 1857-1937

·        Mary Cicily Estes : 1865-1949

·        James S. Sparks : 1867-1956

·        C.L. Johns  : 3 Feb 1859-1914

·        Rebecca F. Ricks Johns : 12 Feb 1874-14 June 1921