Elizabeth Jane (Hicks) Casteel (1822 - 1872)

Born 21 Nov 1822 in Tennessee

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Montgomery Casteel — married 8 Apr 1840 in Limestone County, Alabama

Descendants

Died 20 Nov 1872 at age 49 in Limestone County, Alabama

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Greg Casteel [send private message]

Biography

Elizabeth "Betty" Jane (Hicks) Casteel (1822-1872)

Elizabeth Jane Hicks was born somewhere in Tennessee c.1822. According to Lynn Parham, who obtained his information from various family sources not available to this contributor, Betty's date of birth was 21 November 1822. However, this contributor has been unable to find independent verification of that date. Her tombstone does give her year of birth as 1822. However, the tombstone was erected by some of her great-grandchildren nearly a century after her death, and it is not clear where they got the information about her date of birth. This contributor has been unable to find any documentary evidence that would establish her date of birth with any certainty.

We do not yet know who her parents were or where in Tennessee she was born. (However, see the comments below regarding this contributor's speculation about her ancestry.) All that can be certain at this point is that she somehow made her way to Limestone County, Alabama, by no later than the spring of 1840. (She would have been about 17 years old at that time.)

Elizabeth married Henry Montgomery Casteel on 8 April 1840 in Limestone County, Alabama. The marriage license, issued on 7 April 1840, is on file at the Limestone County Archives. Please note that the names listed on the license are Henry McCassteel (it was almost certainly supposed to read Henry M. Cassteel, but the clerk who filled out the marriage license must have made a transcription error) and Betty Jane Hicks. From this we can infer that she went by the name Betty (or perhaps Betty Jane).

Betty and Henry settled in the Lentzville/Temperance Oak/Pleasant Grove area of western Limestone County, Alabama, were they owned a farm and where Henry worked as a blacksmith. They had several children. Their oldest, James Henson Casteel, was born in 1842, when Betty was about 20 years old and Henry was in his mid 20s. Their youngest, John Samuel Casteel, was born 20 years later in 1862, when Betty was about 40 and Henry was in his mid 40s. There is some uncertainty about exactly how many children Betty and Henry had. At least ten are certain:

• James Henson Casteel (1842-1892)
  
• Henry M. Casteel (c.1845-before 1860)
  
• Jacob Carol "Jake" Casteel (1847-unknown)
  
• Hannah Evelyn Casteel (1848-1924) — her married name was Goode
  
• Prestain (or Preston) H. Casteel (1851-1867)
  
• Elvira M. "Ellen" Casteel (1856-unknown) — her married name was Looney
  
• Francis Jane "Janie" Casteel (1857-unknown) — her married name was Looney
  
• Nancy Rebecca "Beck" Casteel (1859-1927) — her married name was Lee
  
• Abraham L. (Lincoln?) "Bud" Casteel (1861-1938)
  
• John Samuel Casteel (1862-1939)
  

Some secondary sources claim that there was another daughter named Ellen Casteel who (like two of her sisters) married a Looney. The name Ellen Casteel even appears in the 1880 census, and the name Ellen Looney can be found in the 1900 census. But research has shown that the "Ellen" Casteel Looney in the 1880 and 1900 censuses is actually Elvira Casteel. Apparently Elvira sometimes went by the name Ellen, which has confused some researchers.

The 1870 census lists another son named William, born c.1863, but there are no other records of him, and no one in the family seems to have heard of him. While it is certainly possible that this William Casteel died in childhood, this contributor suspects that there was simply a mistake made by the census taker and that this supposed "William" Casteel was actually Abraham Casteel, who is nowhere else to be found in the 1870 census. (Note that the census taker must have also got the ages wrong, since the age he gives for John Casteel would imply that he was born in 1865 rather than 1862.)

Henry Casteel died in 1865, not yet 50 years old, leaving Betty with a house full of children, one of whom — Prestain H. Casteel — died just two years later, in 1867, at the young age of 16. By the 1870 census, Betty was living with the family of her oldest son, James Henson Casteel. She still had three small children to care for — Rebecca, John, and the mysterious "William" (probably actually Abraham, who was only 9 years old at the time — a bit too young to be living somewhere other than with his mother). Betty's other children are all living elsewhere. Elvira and Jane are living with the nearby Benjamin Lentz family where they work as domestics. Jake has gotten married by this time and has a new baby, and they are living not too far from the rest of the family. However, this contributor has yet to be able to locate Betty's oldest daughter, Hannah E. Casteel, in the 1870 census. [But please note that several pages appear to be missing from the 1870 census book for Limestone County, Alabama, so she may have been on one of those missing pages.]

Elizabeth "Betty" Jane Hicks Casteel would live only another two years after the 1870 census was taken, dying on 20 November 1872. She was buried next to her husband, Henry, and her teenaged son, Prestain, in a tiny family cemetery — which has come to be known as the old Casteel Cemetery — on Lakeview Estates Road just north of the Elk River in western Limestone County, Alabama.

After Betty's death, her oldest son, James Henson Casteel, was appointed legal guardian of her two young sons, Abraham and John.

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Census records for Elizabeth Jane (Hicks) Casteel and family:

This family has not been positively identified in any census records prior to 1850. (However, see the comments below for this contributor's speculations about the 1840 census.)

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From the 1850 census for Limestone County, Alabama:

Henry M Casteel | 30 | M | Blacksmith | Tennessee
Elizabeth J " | 28 | F | _ | "
James H " | 7 | M | _ | Alabama
Henry M | 5 | M | _ | "
Jacob C " | 3 | M | _ | "
Hannah E " | 1 | F | _ | "

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From the 1860 census for Limestone County, Alabama:

Henry M Casteel | 43 | M | Blacksmith | Tennessee
Elizabeth J | 37 | F | _ | Tennessee
James H | 18 | M | Farm Labor | Alabama
Jacob C | 15 | M | Farm Labor | Alabama
Hannah E | 11 | F | _ | Alabama
Prestin H | 9 | M | _ | Alabama
Elvira M | 6 | F | _ | Alabama
Francis J | 4 | F | _ | Alabama
Nancy R | 1 | F | _ | Alabama

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From the 1870 census for Limestone County, Alabama:

Casteel James | 29 | M | W | Blacksmith | Ala
" Teresa | 26 | F | W | Keep house | Ala
" Mary | 4 | F | at home | Ala
" Albert | 1 | M | W | " " | Ala
" Elizabeth | 48 | F | W | at home W | Tenn
" Rebecca | 10 | F | W | " " | Ala
" William | 7 | M | W | " " | Ala
" John | 5 | M | W | " " | Ala

Note that, on the previous page of the census book, Betty's daughters Elvira and (Francis) Jane are listed as living with the neighboring Benjamin Lentz family. Jake Casteel — listed as Carrol Casteel in the 1870 census — is living not too far away with his new wife and baby. However, it is unclear where Hannah Casteel is living — she has yet to be located in the 1870 census.

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This contributor's attempt to discover the ancestry of Betty Jane Hicks:

The parents of Elizabeth Jane "Betty" Hicks Casteel have not yet been positively identified. However, I strongly suspect that she is the daughter (or possibly the granddaughter) of James Hynson Hicks. At present, evidence for this relationship is only circumstantial, but it is highly suggestive.

One caveat before we begin: There are many conflicting accounts of the James Hynson Hicks family, and it's hard to know which are reliable and which are not. For example, some accounts say that that James was born in Edgecombe County, North Carolina; others say he was born in or near Knox County, Tennessee. Some say that he got married in Boston, Massachusetts; others say he got married in North Carolina. Some say that his wife was born in England; others say she was born in Massachusetts or Virginia. One account even claims that James Hicks was married at least four times, fathering children by each of these four women. Also, the names, birthdates, and places of birth of his children vary from account to account. Because it is so hard to rely on these conflicting accounts, I have tried my best to search for documentary evidence — census records, marriage licenses, death certificates, tombstones, etc. — to support the story I'm about to tell. Unfortunately, the documentary evidence is somewhat thin, so it will sometimes be necessary for me to rely on the various secondary accounts I've come across and try to reconcile them as best I can. The story that follows represents my best attempt to sort out the names, dates, and locations that I've come across in my research. There are certainly many errors in this account, but even so, I still feel that it is something worthy of consideration as we try to figure out the ancestry of Betty Jane Hicks Casteel. Okay, with that said, here goes:

James Hynson (or Henson or Hinson — the spelling varies) Hicks appears to have been born in either North Carolina or Virginia c.1768. Some accounts give his father's name as Raleigh Hicks. His mother's name is unknown. According to most accounts, James married a woman named Mary Elizabeth Rogers. There is a marriage record for a James Hicks and a Polley Rogers in Person County, North Carolina, in 1793. It's impossible to be certain that this is the correct marriage because James Hicks is a fairly common name and there are several marriage records from the late 1700s that list James Hicks as the name of the groom. But this is the only one I've found where the bride's name is Mary Rogers (Polly being a common nickname for Mary). The fact that the wedding took place in North Carolina lends even more credence to the hypothesis that this is the James Hicks and Mary Rogers we're looking for.

Little can be known with certainty about this Mary Elizabeth "Polley" Rogers. The name is far too common to narrow down which one of the countless girls named Mary Rogers born in the latter half of the 1700s she might possibly have been. Some accounts say that she was born c.1768, though it is unclear where this information came from. I've seen differing accounts of her origins, but since none of them cite any relevant sources, I don't consider any of them to be reliable. But there is one thing that all of the different sources seem to agree on: No one knows when or where she died. All we can say for certain is that she must have died sometime before 1840 (more on this a bit later).

James and Polley had several children. Accounts vary as to how many there were and when and where they were born, but the following names can be found in most accounts:

- Richard N. Hicks (born c.1794 in North Carolina)
- Rebecca Hicks (born c.1798 in North Carolina)
- Hynson Rogers Hicks (born c. 1801 in North Carolina) {1}
- Easter Hicks (born c.1806 in North Carolina) {2}
- Mary "Polly" Hicks (born c.1809 in South Carolina) {3}

(The years and places of birth given above are based on census records — other accounts differ considerably.)

{1} The year and place of birth shown here are taken from the 1860 census. The 1850 census, however, lists his year of birth as c.1810 and his place of birth as Georgia. Since most of the accounts I've read place his date of birth closer to 1801 and give his place of birth as North Carolina, I have chosen to rely on the 1860 census.

{2} This assumes that Easter Hicks is the same person as Easter James (wife of Joshua James) in the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses, as some unverified accounts suggest. Note that there are discrepancies in the census information for Easter James. Depending on the source, her year of birth varies anywhere from 1804 at the earliest to 1809 at the latest, and she is variously listed as having been born in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The birth year and birthplace shown above are uncertain but seem to be the most plausible of the available alternatives. Oddly enough, the James family appears to have been counted twice in the 1870 census — they must have moved while the census was being taken.

{3} This assumes that this is the same Polly Hicks who married Jefferson Burney in Limestone County, Alabama, in 1837. The birthplace here may be in error, since North Carolina seems more likely. Note that some secondary accounts suggest that Polly died in infancy, but I believe this is due to a misunderstanding concerning her year of birth. Some accounts (incorrectly, if the census records are to be believed) give her year of birth as 1811-1812 (i.e. either 1811 or 1812), but I have a feeling that some people misread this as claiming that she was born in 1811 and died in 1812.

Note that some accounts claim that James and Polley Hicks had two other sons: Isaac Hicks and Henry Hicks; however, these names are not cited in all accounts, and I have not been able to track them down with any certainty.

So, James and Polley Hicks, while living in North Carolina, have several children. But they don't stay in North Carolina. What happens next is a bit unclear, and accounts differ, but it appears that most members of the family make their way to Limestone County, Alabama, by way of Tennessee. (Hynson Rogers Hicks is the exception, ending up in Arkansas. Some accounts say that Henry Hicks also went to Arkansas, but I have yet to be able to confirm this. And I have been unable to find any reliable information about Isaac Hicks at all. Nonetheless, the rest of the family went to Alabama by way of Tennessee.) The Hicks migration from North Carolina to Alabama took at least 15 years — even longer for some branches of the family. By the time they finally settled in Limestone County, most of James Hicks's children were fully grown and had families of their own. While most of the Hicks clan seems to have arrived in Limestone County sometime in the mid 1830s, Richard Hicks and his wife and children didn't arrive until about a decade later. There is sufficient documentary evidence to establish that the Hicks clan had established themselves in Limestone County by 1840. Not only do the various branches of the family appear in the 1840 census, there is also a record of Polly Hicks getting married to Jefferson Burney in Limestone County in 1837, and there is a record of Joshua James (the husband of Easter Hicks James) buying some land in Limestone County in that same year. We can also date their arrival using the ages and birthplaces of children in census records. Looking at the 1850 census records of the confirmed descendants of James Hicks who were living in Alabama at the time (excluding the Richard N. Hicks family, since they arrived later than the rest of the Hicks clan), the last of the grandchildren to be born in Tennessee was born c.1832 and the first to be born in Alabama was born c.1836. According to one unverified account, the Hicks clan arrived in Limestone County in 1835, traveling directly from Knoxville, Tennessee, by houseboat on the Tennessee River and landing at Brown's Ferry. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any independent corroboration of this story.

Okay, we've more-or-less established who James Hynson Hicks and family are, where they came from, and how and when they got to Limestone County. But we still haven't seen any evidence that Betty Jane Hicks is a member of this clan. Well, the first piece of evidence is simply the fact that there don't seem to be any other people named Hicks living in Limestone County in 1840 apart from the members of this extended family. (There is a Mary Hicks — a woman in her 30s living with her four children — who I can't positively connect to the James Hicks family, but she lives fairly close to James Hicks and other members of his family, so I suspect that she is part of his clan, too. Perhaps she is James Hicks's widowed daughter-in-law, but I can't be certain about that. Also, there was a Richard Hix living in Limestone County in 1830, but he didn't have a daughter old enough to have been Betty Jane Hicks, and his family is no longer living in the county in 1840.) So the first piece of evidence that Betty Jane Hicks was part of the James Hynson Hicks clan is the simple fact that this seems to have been the only Hicks family in Limestone County at the time.

But there is even stronger evidence. James Hicks is listed in the 1840 census for Limestone County, Alabama. The 1840 census only gives the name of the head of the household, how many males and females are living in the household, and a very rough approximation of their ages. The James Hicks household has three members: a male between the ages of 70 and 80 (presumably James himself), a male between the ages of 20 and 30, and a female between the ages of 15 and 20. James's wife, Polley, who was approximately the same age as her husband, must have died sometime before 1840, though it is unclear whether she died before the family arrived in Alabama or after. But who are the young man and woman who are living with James? Unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure. But we do know that Henry Casteel (a male in his early 20s) and Betty Casteel (a female in her late teens) were in Limestone County, Alabama, in 1840, because they got married there in April of that year — yet they can't be found in the 1840 census. They must have been living with someone, but with whom? There is only one Casteel listed in the 1840 census for Limestone County: a Jno Casteel (Jno was a common abbreviation for the name John). But the Jno Casteel household had only five members: a man and woman in their 20s and three children under the age of 5. Clearly this isn't Henry and Betty, since they were newlyweds and had no children in 1840. It's reasonable to suspect that Jno Casteel and Henry were related — perhaps even brothers — but Henry and his new bride do not appear to be living with the Jno Casteel family. So it is reasonable to suspect that they might have been living with some of Betty's relatives, assuming that she had any relatives living in Limestone County at the time. We know from her marriage license that her maiden name was Hicks, so that leads us to look for her among the Hicks families of Limestone County. There are only two heads of household named Hicks listed in the 1840 census for Limestone County: James Hicks and Mary Hicks. Mary Hicks is a single (probably widowed) mother in her 30s living with four children. Is it possible that Mary Hicks was Betty's mother? Sure, it's possible, but what is clear is that Henry and Betty are not living with Mary Hicks in 1840. But a young man in his twenties and a young woman in her teens, as yet unidentified, are living with James Hicks. Does this prove anything? No. But it does at least raise the possibility that Henry and Betty could be living with James Hicks in 1840. Let's look at some more evidence.

Although the 1840 census doesn't give information about which part of the county people live in, a look at the names of James Hicks's nearest neighbors (including Milton Goode, several members of the Lentz family, and George Tucker) indicates that he must have been living in the Lentzville/Temperance Oak/Pleasant Grove area of western Limestone County, very near to where Henry and Betty Casteel's farm would be a decade later. The listing for James Hicks is not too far from the listing for Jno Casteel (as yet unidentified), who is found on the previous page in the census book.

In 1844, James Hicks marries the widow Mildred "Millie" Lentz in Limestone County. Millie is the mother of three children, the youngest of whom is Pleasant Lentz (his name is misspelled as Lutz on his land patent records). James Hicks dies in February of 1850 in Limestone County, AL. The 1850 census — taken no more than a few months after James's death — lists Millie Hicks and Pleasant Lentz immediately after the Henry M. Casteel family. A map of land holdings in Limestone County shows the Pleasant Lentz (Lutz) farm adjoining the Henry M. Casteel farm. They quite literally lived next door to each other!

Let's back up a bit. According to most accounts, James Hicks's oldest daughter, Rebecca, got married in Knox County, Tennessee, in 1821. This is supported by documentary evidence — I have seen the marriage license. Who did she marry? A preacher by the name of Samuel Edmondson (alternately spelled Edmundson or Edmondsen) who, in April of 1840, would perform the wedding ceremony for Henry Casteel and Betty Jane Hicks!

Then there's the fact that Henry and Betty named their first son James Henson Casteel — did they perhaps name him after Betty's father (or grandfather)? (Keep in mind that, in those days, the spelling of names wasn't standardized, so people would just spell a name the way it sounded; so there was lots of variation in how a name might be spelled. In terms of pronunciation, Hynson and Henson are the same name.) There are also a number of other similarities of names between the Henry Casteel family and the various branches of the Hicks family in Limestone County, though we probably shouldn't read too much into this, since certain names — like Elizabeth, Jane, and Rebecca — were quite popular in those days.

There is one more piece of evidence worth some consideration. You may recall me mentioning that some accounts (as yet unverified by documentary evidence) claim that James Hynson Hicks's daughter Easter married a Joshua James. There is evidence of a Joshua James family living in Limestone and Lauderdale counties from at least 1837 (when Joshua bought some land in Limestone County) to 1881 (when Joshua and his wife both died in Lauderdale County). According to census records, death records, and tombstone inscriptions, Joshua James's wife was indeed named Easter (or Esther, which is the spelling used on her tombstone). There is still no proof that this Easter James was James Hynson Hicks's daughter, but they were living not too far from each other in the 1840 census. You may recall me mentioning that, in the 1870 census, the Joshua James family was counted twice — apparently they must have moved while the census was being taken (the two records were taken about a month apart by two different census workers). There are some discrepancies between the two records — which just goes to show that census records aren't always reliable — but that's not what I find so intriguing about them. What raises the hairs on the back of my neck are the names of the people living with the James family in these two census records from 1870. In the first record (taken on 13 June 1870), there are eight people in the household: Joshua James (62), Easter James (60), Sallie James (38), Joshua James (28), Isabella Matthews (26), Marion Matthews (7), William Rogers (8), and R M Hicks (75). The handwriting was a bit hard to make out in places, so some of these names and ages may be incorrect. In particular, R M Hicks may actually have been R N Hicks — as in Richard N. Hicks. In any case, this is the first bit of hard evidence I've come across that directly connects Easter James to anyone named Hicks. But it's the second record (taken on 25 July 1870) that really gets me excited. Here, the members of the household include: Joshua James (60), Easter James (65), Sarah James (43), Isabella James (35), L L James (25), William Crutcher (10), Morgan Matthews (4), and two other people who I'll get to in a moment. The handwriting here is even worse than on the previous record, and the quality of the image is poor, so once again there is a possibility that I'm just misreading some of these names and ages. But it seems more likely to me that the census taker just got some of them wrong. (For example, I suspect that he misheard the name William Rogers as William Crutcher, since there is a William Rogers living with the family in both 1860 and 1880, but this is the only record that lists a William Crutcher.) But that's not what I'm interested in. What really intrigues me are the final two names listed as living with the Joshua James family in their 25 July 1870 census record. Mr. Hicks is no longer living with the family — he may have died or else may have moved in with other relatives — he has been replaced in the household by what I assume to be a single (widowed?) mother, age 33, and her daughter, age 3. Their names are (drumroll please) ... Melina and Puss Casteel!!! Now, I have no clue who Melina Casteel was — I'm still looking into it, but I haven't had much success thus far — but this is the first documentary evidence I've found that definitively links a (supposed) member of the James Hynson Hicks family to someone named Casteel. (BTW, most census transcriptions have the daughter's name listed as Puso instead of Puss, but if you look at the actual images the name is clearly meant to be Puss.)

None of this evidence is conclusive, of course, but there are just too many strange coincidences going on here if Betty Jane Hicks Casteel is not somehow related to the James Hynson Hicks family. Personally, I am convinced in my own mind that a relationship is highly probable. I don't know if Betty Jane Hicks Casteel is James Hynson Hicks's daughter, his granddaughter (perhaps the daughter of the elusive Isaac Hicks), or some other relation, but I do believe that she is a member of his extended family. I just don't have the documentary evidence to prove it.

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Sources

Much of what we know about Henry and Betty Casteel and their children is due to the family history research of Lynn Parham. Although many of his findings have been overturned in the years since he first published them, his research is still the place to begin any enquiry into the history of the Casteel family of Limestone County, Alabama. He first published his findings in James Lynn Parham, An Alabama Rose Garden (1998), which has proven to be an invaluable reference source throughout this research. He also maintains a Casteel family history web page, which contains much of the same information that he included in the book (though the book includes an extremely useful compendium of the Casteel family line, listing the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. of Henry and Betty Casteel, that is not included on his webpage). Unfortunately, his web page contains some outdated information that has been disproved (or at least thrown into serious doubt) by subsequent research. Nonetheless, many of his findings still hold up quite well, and what he has written is certainly worth consideration: http://home.comcast.net/~lynn.parham/casteel.htm

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Although documentary evidence about the lives of Henry, Betty, their children, their friends and neighbors, and their (potential) relatives is quite scarce, a number of important documents — including Henry and Betty's marriage license and the documents appointing James Casteel guardian of his two youngest brothers after their mother's death — are on file at the Limestone County (AL) Archives, and can be accessed online: http://limestonearchives.com/

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Another source for Henry and Betty's marriage record: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5Z7-64P

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The census information cited above was taken directly from the original microfilm images on file at the National Archives, which have been made available online via the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/index.php

Here are links to the specific sources:

For the 1840 census of Limestone County, Alabama:
— the original images: https://archive.org/details/populationsc18400008unit
(Note that there is no specific record in the 1840 census for Henry and Betty Casteel, even though they are known to have been living in Limestone County at that time. They were likely living with relatives.)

For the 1850 census of Limestone County, Alabama:
— the original images: https://archive.org/details/7thcensus0007unit
— census record for Betty Casteel and family: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-2Z7

For the 1860 census of Limestone County, Alabama:
— the original images: https://archive.org/details/populationschedu013unit
— census record for Betty Casteel and family: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHDP-41L

For the 1870 census of Limestone County, Alabama:
— the original images: https://archive.org/details/populationschedu0024unit
— census record for Betty Casteel and family: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKF-RD5

(Use caution when relying on census records at FamilySearch. They contain a number of transcription errors.)

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See the WikiTree profile for Elvira (Casteel) Looney for a discussion of the sources used to establish that the "Ellen Casteel Looney" mentioned in some sources is actually Elvira: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Casteel-215

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A variety of sources have informed this contributor's speculations about the possible relationship between Betty Jane Hicks and the James Hynson Hicks family. The most important documentary sources have been marriage records and census records.

Marriage records:

- James Hicks to Polley Rogers: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8Y1-R6G

- Samuel Edmondson to Rebecka Hicks: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XZ43-LYF
(Image available at this link.)

- Jefferson Burney to Polly Hicks: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5Z7-8BK
(Image available at the Limestone County Archives.)

- Henry Casteel (Henry McCassteel) to Betty Jane Hicks: (see above)
(Image available at the Limestone County Archives.)

- James Hicks to Mildred Lentz: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5Z7-8FX
(Image available at the Limestone County Archives.)

Census records:

1840

-James Hicks household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-6JH

-Mary Hicks household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-6P4

-Sam Edmondson household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-671

-Joshua James household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-6WZ

-Jefferson Burney household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-D2N

-Jno Casteel household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHTL-6J9

1850

-James Hicks (mortality schedule): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9BX-4LT

-Millie Hicks & Pleasant Lentz: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-2ZZ

-Henry M. Casteel household: (see above)

-Samuel Edmondson household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-5MR

-Joshua James household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-3VZ

-Jefferson Burney household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-J34

-Richard N. Hicks household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH5S-YLL

1860

-Henry M. Casteel household: (see above)

-Samuel Edmondson household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHDP-H8J

-Joshua James household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8TZ-FK4

1870

-Joshua James household (first listing): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKD-GTH

-Joshua James household (second listing): https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHKD-14F

1880

-Joshua James household: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M4JP-JWC

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For a map of early land holdings in Limestone County, Alabama, showing the proximity of the Pleasant Lentz (Lutz) farm to the Henry M. Cassteel farm, see: Gregory A. Boyd, Family Maps of Limestone County, Alabama, Deluxe Edition (2007), page 92.

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Various (unverified) accounts of the origins and travels of the James Hynson Hicks family can be found online. Linked below (in no particular order) are a few that this contributor consulted and found helpful in his research. (A word of caution: Many of the details vary considerably from account to account, and few of them can be verified by reliable documentary sources. It is unwise to put much faith in any of these accounts. However, they do provide certain hints that the cautious researcher may find helpful.)

- http://records.ancestry.com/james_hynson_hicks_records.ashx?pid=25443508

- http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/s/p/u/Terri-L-Spurling/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0344.html

- http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/hicks/2/

- http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hicks-4583

- https://books.google.com/books?id=qV4E85CM0UcC&pg=PA40

- http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/s/p/u/Terri-L-Spurling/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0388.html

- http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/s/p/u/Terri-L-Spurling/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0345.html

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