John S. Hicks was a local businessman and inventor who lived in Erie. He was born in Virginia on February 14, 1845. He came to Erie around 1878, and operated a business at 1406 Turnpike Street for about three years. John later purchased a three-story building at 1216 State Street, which housed his ice cream manufacturing business and retail store in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
During the summer season his specialty was the furnishing of ice cream for his parlors, and for supplying orders for private families, parties, picnic and church festivals. Hicks was granted a U.S. patent, number 801,379 on October 10, 1905, for an Ice-cream Mold.
Hicks was chosen by the Governor of Pennsylvania to be a delegate to the Illinois National Half-Century Exposition held in Chicago in 1915 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
After retiring from the ice cream business around 1910 he passed away on November 13, 1933. He is buried in Erie Cemetery. His building at 1216 State Street was demolished about thirty years after he died.
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