Some of the Southwest’s more famous characters got famous, not by way of rich gold, silver and copper mines like Ed Schieffelin who struck the famous or infamous (depending on your point of view) Tombstone Silver Lode or by being eccentric like Doc Holiday.  No, some of them become legendary because they were the first.

John Hicks was born in August 1849 and led an unassuming life until 1879 when he entered the history books.  John Hicks attended John Hopkins University where he studied science and later became a pharmacist. Drifting west Hicks wound up in the gold fields of California where he prospected for about 5 years before joining Professor Nathaniel Lupton of Vanderbilt University for a prospecting trip into Mexico in 1878.

After hearing about the rich Tombstone silver lode, Hicks made his way to Tombstone Arizona Territory in 1879 and staked his claim.  John’s father assisted John a bit later in forming a mining company and together they purchased a small fortune in mining equipment. John’s brother Boyce was also sent west to assist his brother with the claim.

In 1879, Tombstone, Arizona was still more camp than town with most all commercial enterprise housed in tents, saloons being no exception. The largest and by far the most popular of the tent saloons was Danner & Owens which served whiskey for two bits and was the meeting place of all the hard-men of the area.

It was in Danner & Owens that John Hicks became famous for being the first in a long line of Tombstone Citizens to make their permanent home in Tombstone’s Boothill Cemetery.

According to reports in the Arizona Citizen, “The town of Tombstone was thrown into a state of excitement by a shooting affray which occurred here last night at 11 o’clock.” Seems that in the early evening of July 10, 1879, a feud between Jeremiah McCormick and a man named Quinn was the catalyst for the events that would unfold later that evening when Quinn, liquored up stopped in front of Danner & Owens and exclaimed that he could “whip any man in town.”  Apparently this was for McCormick or so he took it that way and the Arizona Citizen reports that McCormick then turned to Quinn and “…quickly dealt him a blow on the proboscis, which knocked him to the ground.”  Quinn shot back up and a tussle ensued until Quinn cried uncle.

Later that evening Quinn ran into his friend John Hicks and told him what had happened. The two then made their way to Danner & Owens where Hicks resumed the fight with McCormick. Unpleasantries were exchanged and Hicks retreated in anger to his tent where he told his brother of the feud.  John and Boyce returned to Danner & Owens armed with rifles. The Hicks brothers met McCormick and another man named Jackson outside of Danner & Owens. More unpleasantries were bandied about. Pistols were drawn and before the Hicks brothers could do anything 6 shots rang out, 5 from McCormick and one from Jackson. John Hicks was killed where he stood and Boyce was seriously wounded.

McCormick and Jackson were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Babcock and the body of John Hicks was moved to a saloon owned by Fatty Smith.  A coroners inquest of John Hicks was held and the verdict was that Hicks, “Came to his death by a pistol ball shot by the hand of an unknown person.” John’s brother Boyce did not die from his wound but was permanently blinded from the gunshot wound he suffered.

And with that, John Hicks became the first permanent inhabitant of Tombstone’s Boothill Cemetery.