Charles W. Chesnutt to Edward Hicks, 9 March 1922
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March 9, 1922.
Mr. Edward Hicks,
6714 Lexington Avenue,
City.
Dear Sir:
I have a letter from Fayettville from Mat‸thew L. Hicks,1 asking me to help him learn the whereabouts of his father, Edward Hicks, who left Pittsburgh, Pa., fifteen years ago, to take a painting contract in the West.2 The last letter received from him was postmarked Cleveland, and his people are anxious for some reason to find out where he is. If you happen to be the man or know anything about him and will advise me of that fact or whatever the fact is by putting a note in the enclosed stamped and addressed envelope, I shall be much obliged.3
Yours very truly, CWC/FLCorrespondent: An Edward Hicks, carpenter, is listed as living at the given address in the Cleveland City Directory of 1921. He does not seem to have been Matthew L. Hicks's father. His life dates are not known. Contact the Charles W. Chesnutt Archive if you have further information.
1. Matthew L. Hicks (1900–?), the grandson of Matthew Nathaniel Leary, Jr. (1833–1892), was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. The 1910 U.S. census records show that as a ten-year-old, after his mother's death, he lived with his aunt, Sarah M. Melchar (1867–1933), and her husband, Dr. Paul W. Melchar (1865–1928), in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In the 1940s, he lived in New York City. [back]
2. Matthew L. Hicks's father, Edward Hicks, cannot be further identified. Contact the Charles W. Chesnutt Archive if you have further information. [back]
3. See Matthews L. Hicks's letter of February 10, 1922, and Chesnutt's reply of March 24, 1922, indicating that he had written to all of the people named Hicks in the Cleveland City Directory, although only two of these letters have survived. [back]
