John S. Hicks-Erie Confectioner and Ice Cream Manufacturer
Friday Feb 5th, 2021
John S. Hicks, son of a former slave, was born in Virginia on February 14, 1845. He began in the ice cream business in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1864. He moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1878 and soon built his business in a large, modern building at 1216 State Street that housed his ice cream “factory” in the basement, an ice cream parlor on the first floor and an apartment on the second floor he shared with his wife Frances and daughter Ida.
