Galen Richard Hickok

GALEN RICHARD HICKOK, M. D., was born June 30, 1874, on a farm near Whitesville, Missouri, youngest son of James E. and Lucinda Olive (Bowen) Hickok. He came to Kansas with his parents when four years old, and settled in Haskell County in 1885. Schools being scarce in a newly settled country, Galen was sent "back east" each winter to attend school at Argonia in Sumner County, and incidentally learned the printer's trade. Later, by means of that trade, he worked his way through Ottawa University to the junior year, then through medical college. The first two years of his medical course were taken at the University Medical of Kansas City. Two more years and graduation were at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, St. Louis, and a year as house physician in a St. Louis hospital prepared the young doctor to return to Southwestern Kansas and enter the practice.

Doctor Hickok hung out his shingle at Ulysses in Grant County, and for a number of years was the only graduate physician south of the Santa Fe main line and west of the Rock Island - a territory stretching to Clayton, New Mexico, and covering a larger area than Belgium, Luxemburg and Switzerland combined, with Rhode Island thrown in for good measure. Fortunately, population was small and the people were distressingly healthy. Professional duties were consequently not irksome, though a call often required driving more than 100 miles to see the patient. Those were the days of saddle horses and buckboards. With the advent of automobiles it was possible to induce other physicians to come, in which work Doctor Hickok was an active missionary.

When he was finally able to locate another doctor at Ulysses, Doctor Hickok laid aside the active practice of medicine, devoting himself to public health and newspaper work. During his college days he had conducted a paper in Wellsville, near Ottawa, and after turning over his medical practice to the new man, he purchased and consolidated the two republican papers at Syracuse, Kansas, calling the result the Republican-News. After the new railroad was built southwest from Dodge City in 1912 the Southwestern Mortgage Company was organized to enter the farm and cattle loan business at Satanta in Haskell County, and Doctor Hickok took active charge of the business as president.

When Uncle Sam decided to take out a stack in the great war game Doctor Hickok, at the request of citizens of that community was appointed on the Local Draft Board for Grant County. His acquaintance with the people of that county, as well as other sections of the southwest, enabled him to not only handle the physical examinations, but also to act his full part in all the work of the draft board. Sending other men to the army, himself staying at home, grew to seem unjust, and Doctor Hickok offered his services to his country, being commissioned an officer of the Medical Corps.

Ethel Trotter Beaty and Galen Richard Hickok were married at Lakin, Kansas, November 12, 1903. Miss Beaty was a daughter of Alvin R. Beaty, elsewhere mentioned in these volumes. She was born at Carrollton, Missouri, March 20, 1879, graduated from the Lakin High School, and from the Liberty Ladies' College of Liberty, Missouri. Before her marriage she taught one term of school, following therein the footsteps of most Kansas wives. Since, she has been actively identified with women's clubs and civic affairs. At the present time she is treasurer of Dudley Township in Haskell County. Like a host of other wives, she is ably handling her husband's business affairs while he is away from home in the army service.