The funeral of Sophia J. Hicks, early pioneer of Mills County, was held in the Methodist Church in Hastings, Tuesday afternoon, February 2, at 2:30 conducted by Rev. Winfield Insley of Shenandoah. Music was by Mrs. Edgar Christy accompanied by Mrs. Charles Anderson on the piano. Burial was in Hastings Cemetery. Pall bearers were grandsons of the deceased.
Brief services had been held in Shenandoah in the home that morning conducted by Mrs. Frank Anshutz with singing by Mrs. Mildred Clovis and Mr. Mooney.
Mrs. Hicks was one of Mills County earliest pioneers, coming to this vicinity when there were very few settlers and spending the larger part of her long life here. She lived in or near Hastings for more than seventy years during which time she saw vast change. In times manner of living and general conditions.
Sophia J. Keeler was born July 29, 1843 in Hancock County, Illinois. When she was bout two years of age, her mother passed away. Her father, James Keeler and herself were among the Mormons who wintered in Missouri before coming to Kansville (now Council Bluffs) in the spring of 1846.
Uncle Hiram and Aunt Sarah Hoyt of the old North Grove neighborhood became her foster parents, giving a comfortable home and excellent training. Thus she met the hardships of pioneer life without a fear. July 29, 1859 she untied in marriage with John B. Hicks at Glenwood, settling on a farm in Indian Creek township, Mills County. To this union eleven children were born; three sons, Halsey, Fred, and Frank. Halsey passed away at the age of thirty-one in 1891. The daughters, Mamie Spratien, Arbilla Lookabill, Ida Lindsay, Elizabeth Rounds, Eva Crumbles, Harriet Shields, Anna Harvey, and Carried who preceded her mother to the great beyond in 1880, being two years of age.
June 23, 1914, Mr. Hicks passed away at the age of eighty years. In August 1919, she moved to Sidney, Iowa, where she made her home until August 1931, when she moved Shenandoah, with her daughter and sons-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Spartien.
Mrs. Hicks was a Christian woman and loved her church. She was a loyal member of the Presbyterian Church at Sidney and after coming to Shenandoah withdrew her letter from that church to unite with the Presbyterian Church of Shenandoah. She gave her letter to the pastor just a little more than two weeks before her departure and it was received into the church just two weeks before she passed beyond.
She was a woman who easily adapted herself to new surroundings. She was naturally of a social nature and loved in to visit.
She passed from this life last Sunday, January 31, 1932 at the age of eighty-nine years. Hers was a long useful life and with the failing of this “Earthly house she has gone that house and made with hands eternal in the Heavens.”
Malvern Leader, Thursday, February 11, 1932, page 1