Lives of the Pipers Home
John Hicks
performer
b. Co. Kildare, Ireland circa 1830
d. New York City Feb. 16, 1883
John Hicks was a professional musician, active in vaudeville and its predecessor forms of entertainment in the 1870s. He is also one of the few Irish pipers known to be a veteran of the United States Civil War. With the exception of accounts of his death, and the paperwork generated by his military service, there are few contemporary references to John Hicks. Such evidence as exists is ambiguous, sometimes contradictory. His obituary in the New York Times described him as "a well-known character." And he may have been a "character" in the way of eccentric habits and an inclination to exaggerate his background.
Hicks was born around 1830 in County Kildare. He "became a piper under the patronage and instruction of Captain Kelly," a well-off sportsman and gentleman piper. Hicks also played flute and violin. He left for the United States about 1850. From one obituary: 'It is said that he was an "exile," having to fly from Ireland for complicity in the troubles of '48.' The 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion was an unsuccessful nationalist uprising, culminating in a gunfight, July 29, 1848, between the rebels and members of the Irish Constabulary in Ballingary, Tipperary, about 60 miles (95 km) southwest of Kildare Town.
In the United States, Hicks is first heard from in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1859, arrested for Keeping a Disorderly House. He was described as "a sort of retired Bag-Piper," and witnesses said that "the place was kept open and in full operation night and day and all the time on Sundays." For the rest of his life Paterson seems to have been his home base, the place of return after touring, or visits, sometimes extended, to other cities.
Hicks served in the Union Army during the US Civil War (1861-65). He was a volunteer recruit, not drafted or serving as a substitute for someone who was drafted. Hicks was in the army from January 13, 1864 to July 17, 1865, in Company D 33rd Regiment of the New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, US Army. He served as a private, and was promised $300 as bounty money for enlisting for three years or duration of the war.
The 33rd Regiment was formed in July 1863 and assigned to "service in the West," that is, in Tennessee. By the time Hicks joined them, January 1864, the regiment had fought in the Battles of Chattanooga and Mission Ridge. The regiment spent most of 1864 in Georgia, and was present at several engagements, including the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. It took part in the Siege of Atlanta and the Savannah Campaign, better known as General William Sherman's March to the Sea, Nov.- Dec. 1864. The regiment, including Hicks, was mustered out of service at Washington D.C. July 17, 1865.
For at least six months in 1864 Hicks' family in Paterson received financial support from the State of New Jersey - $6.00 per month.
Hicks toured as the Irish piper in Healy & Cohan's Hibernian Comedy Company, at least in the 1873-74 season. This was a hibernicon, a form of entertainment principally designed for Irish emigrant audiences. A panorama scroll of paintings of Ireland was described by a lecturer, along with comic acts, dancing, song, music. All these are described in a review of the Company from an unknown newspaper, December 1873. 'Then there were airs on the Irish bagpipes, a curious but not very musical instrument, including the "Chicken Concert," and all interspersed with amusing dialogue.'
By 1877 he was performing with Neal Conway, a well-known Irish "clog-dancer," in vaudeville or variety halls. Francis O'Neill says Hicks and Conway were in Chicago in 1880. Conway squandered all their money, leaving Hicks stranded there, perhaps for some weeks. O'Neill, writing about 1913, was favorably impressed with Hicks, personally and musically, and provides much information and a couple of anecdotes about him in Irish Folk Music and Irish Minstrels and Musicians.
O'Neill had good opinion of Hicks' piping skills. He noted that many pipers have strengths and weaknesses in performance; some good at dance music but not so much at airs; others the opposite. "The subject of this sketch was a notable exception. He had neither fads nor favorites, for he was equally proficient and charming in all kinds of music, ancient and modern, which came within the compass of his instrument."
Notices of public performances are few. The last found is with Irish comedian Mike Gallagher in 1878. Obituaries assert he was active at "Irish festivals" and events in the New York City region.
Hicks applied for a Federal veteran's pension in 1880 as an "Invalid," that is, as disabled and unable to do manual labor. The pension was not granted. After his death in February 1883 his daughter Mary Ann Hicks applied for her father's benefits but only minor children were eligible and she was too old to qualify.
According to pension application records, in 1880 Hicks was "Age 52; height 5 feet 6 1/2 inches; complexion Dark; hair Black; eyes Hazel." In the army "he was a fifer in the drum corps ... That since defendant's discharge he has not been able to work, except occasionally play on the bag-pipes." During military service he contracted "the asthma in its worst form from laying on damp fields in the night air an rain & which continues to the present I have not applied for treatment till after the war was over and I came home I tried specifics and Doctors medison beyond number and to no account this 17 years it continues to get more distressing on my breathing on our march through georgia I contracted the bleeding Piles [hemorrhoids] also uncurable since I have not applied for treatment till after I was discharged...."
One has the sense that his health deteriorated during the 1870s and by 1880 he was unable to earn a living. In an undated letter he writes of "being destitute having to depend on my daughter for support." On the other hand references to performances suggest that he remained active as a musician and perhaps the severity of his disabilty was overstated in his pension application.
That Hicks was a Civil War veteran is not mentioned in any newspaper references or obituaries.
Hicks' death generated an unusual amount of press coverage. On January 9th, or perhaps the 20th, 1883, Hicks was on his way from a gig in Weehawken, New Jersey, to visit his daughter in Manhattan. In Weehawken he was found on the street unconscious and taken by passers-by to a doctor, where a head wound was dressed. He seemed to recover, and said a person unknown to him had hit him on the head by a "slungshot." The police and Hicks' daughter were inclined to believe that he fell and cut his head, likely after drink taken. Weeks later he complained of severe head pain and was taken to the Ninety-ninth Street Hospital, Manhattan, where he died February 16th. After an autopsy the Coroner declared his death was due not to the beating he may have received, but to "apoplexy," a stroke.
The 1880 US Census has a John Hicks, 50 years, widower, occupation musician, living at 231 Mulberry Street, Manhattan, with daughter Mary, age 26 and sons James, 17 and William, 14. This is likely, but not a certainty, to be piper Hicks. Most of John Hicks' obituaries and pension application records give his address as 152 West Eighteenth Street, Paterson, NJ.
There is record for the issuance of a Union Veteran headstone for John Hicks, to be sent to the Catholic Cemetery, Paterson, NJ, probably in 1886. Hicks is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Paterson, a Roman Catholic cemetery. Cemetery records show that Hicks is buried there but the specific location of the grave is not known. A Civil War veteran headstone for Hicks was not found in a 2018 search of the older sections of the cemetery.
Selected References
"The Beauties of Ireland. ... for the Opera House" [the "Chicken Concert"] Wheeling [WV] Daily Intelligencer Dec. 25, 1873 p. 4 column 2
GenealogyBank.com
"The Cause of Piper Hicks's Death." [verdict of coroner] New York Daily Tribune March 2, 1883 p. 8 column 2
GenealogyBank.com
"Death of John Hicks, the Irish Piper." New-York Times Feb. 17, 1883 p. 2 column 4
Newspaperarchive.com
Granshaw Michelle The Hibernicon and Visions of Returning Home: Popular Entertainment in Irish America from the Civil War to World War I Ph. D. dissertation University of Washington 2012 373 p.
http://hdl.handle.net/1773/20658
"John Hicks, the Irish Piper, Dead by Violence." Paterson [NJ] Daily Guardian Feb. 17, 1883 p. 3 column 2
Paterson NJ Daily Gardian 1882 Aug-Feb 1883 - 0674.pdf
"The Late Neal Conway." New York Clipper Jan. 28, 1888 p. 734 column 3
http://idnc.library.illinois.edu/cgi-bin/illinois?a=d&d=NYC18880128.2.44&srpos=4&e=--1880---1905--en-20--1--txt-txIN-mcevoy+piper-------
"Local and State Items. Keeping a Disorderly House." Paterson [NJ] Daily Guardian Jan. 15, 1859 p. 2 column 5
Peterson NJ Daily Gardian 1858 Nov-Nov 1859 - 0188.pdf
Odell, George C. D. Annals of the New York Stage Columbia Univ. Press 1938 vol. X pp. 287, 462, 473
O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 pp. 224-6
O'Neill, Francis Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby Chicago 1910 pp. 21-4
"A Popular Piper's Fatal Hurt." New York Sun Feb. 17, 1883 p. 4 column 1
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1883-02-17/ed-1/seq-4/
"Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848" Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Irelander_Rebellion_of_1848
Accessed June 24, 2018
Nick Whitmer
July 2018; updated Oct. 2018