Labette County Biographies
From the "Portrait and Biographical Record of Southeastern Kansas"
Biographical Publishing Company, Chicago, 1894
REV. PETER W. SHICK, an able and talented minister of the Church of Christ, and an influential
citizen of Mound Valley, was born in Clinton County, Ohio,
April 4, 1827. He was one of eleven children
comprising the family of Peter and Elizabeth
(Woodruff) Shick, both of whom died when he
was but eight years old. Grandfather Lewis Shick
(or as the name was then spelled, Schick) was
born in Germany, and emigrating to America, located in Kentucky in the days of Daniel Boone
and other famous pioneers. He erected the first
cabin on the present site of Germantown and acquired considerable fame throughout the state as
an unerring shot and bold frontiersman. Peter
Shick, Sr., was a minister in the Baptist Church
for some time, but later identified himself with
Alexander Campbell and continued in the ministry of the Church of Christ until his death.
Our subject resided with an uncle in his youth
and received a common-school education. After
growing to manhood he engaged in the profession
of a school teacher for ten years, and meanwhile, by a subtle influence of which he himself
was at the time unconscious, he became to an
ever-increasing extent identified with the ministry
of the Church of Christ, until he was numbered
among the leaders of that denomination. He began his ministerial career at Bloomfield, Davis
County, Iowa, where he located in 1850. During
the following year he married Miss Maggie,
daughter of Nicholas, and grand-daughter of
Emanuel Srofe, a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War and a participant in the battle of
Lundy's Lane.
In 1862 Mr. Shick accepted the pastorate of the
church at Mackinaw, Tazewell County, Ill., where
he remained for five years. During the ensuing
five years he was pastor of the church at Hamersville, Ohio, whence he came to Labette County,
Kan., in the fall of 1872, and this county has since
been his home. Locating on the prairie south of
Parsons, he improved one hundred and sixty acres
and there remained until 1878, when he removed
to Parsons. Three years afterward he came to
Mound Valley, where he has a beautiful home and
superintends his farm of one hundred and sixty
acres lying near the city.
In Greek and Latin Mr. Shick is well versed.
He is also thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures,
and is an able debater upon religious subjects,
having held fifty-four discussions, in which he has
proved the possession of splendid reasoning powers and broad knowledge. He and his wife have
reared four children, namely: Kate, wife of Isaac
Elledge; Laura, who married Frank Harper, of
Wichita County, Kan.; Alva, of Mound Valley,
and Frank, who is connected with the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company at Wellsville. Politically, Mr. Shick is a liberal Democrat.
Under the administration of President Cleveland
he served as Postmaster at Mound Valley, and also
officiated in that position during President Buchanan's administration.
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This website created September 18, 2011 by Sheryl McClure.
� 2011 Kansas History and Heritage Project
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