The Site of Hickstown - Madison County, FL - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

THE SITE OF HICKSTOWN, 65.1 m., was the favorite camping place in the early 1800's of John Hicks (Tokse Emathla), a Mikasuki chief. In 1824, Governor William Duval of Florida, in an effort to promote harmony between the white settlers and the Indians, appointed Hicks chief of all tribes in the State. Two years later Hicks visited President Adams in Washington to adjust relations between his people and the whites. He was present at Payne's Landing (see Tour 18) in 1832 and signed the treaty by which the Indians agreed to leave Florida, but died before the removal took place.

There's really nothing to see around the former site of Hickstown except U.S. Highway 90, a private drive to someone's house, and the historical marker. The historical marker reads as follows:

"The Miccosukee Indian chief, John Hicks, (English name for Tuckose Emathla) was a prominent Indian leader in the period between the First and Second Seminole Wars (1818-1835). It is believed that after General Andrew Jackson destroyed the Miccosukee towns to the west of here in the 1818 campaign against the Seminoles, John Hicks relocated his village near this site. This village, Hicks Town, was evacuated by the Indians by 1826 as Seminoles were removed to a central Florida reservation. John Hicks died in the winter of 1833-34 after a decade as a major spokesman for his people in treaty councils in which important decisions about the future of the Seminoles were made. White settlers occupied the site in the late 1820's, and in 1830, Hickstown Post Office was established. By the late 1830's, the village had disappeared as a center of population due to the Second Seminole War and the creation of an official Madison County seat at San Pedro."