He married Josephine Barrick, a native of Frederick county, MD. She descended from the Harbaugh family. The history of the family is almost coextensive with the history of the country. The Harbaughs settled in Maryland in colonial times.[2]
Hicks was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses. He served as chairman of the United States House Committee on Patents during the Fifty-fifth Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1898. He resumed the practice of law, and served as a member of the Altoona Board of Education from 1911 to 1919. He served as State commander of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1921. He died in Altoona in 1923 and is interred in Fairview Cemetery.[3]