Civil War Veteran
Pvt. Co. E, 129th IN Inf.
Husband of Sophina

For many years David Shick was one of the outstanding men of Oklahoma, having been engaged in the cultivation of garden products in Okmulgee, where he settled after a long and varied career in other States. He was here in the days when the modern industrialized Oklahoma was being made, when the white settlers were pouring into the region and were laying the foundation stones for great business structures. He was dearly loved by a large number of people in and near Okmulgee, where he took so active a part in the affairs of his city and community and built up a business enterprise of importance. After his death in 1907, an occasion of profound sorrow in Okmulgee, Mrs. Shick took over the business which he had left to her, reared at the same time a large family of children, and became eminently successful in all her undertakings; while, at the time of writing, when she is eighty-two years of age, she transacts all her own business affairs, and is one of the most active women of Okmulgee. Mr. Shick was born October 16, 1842, in Ohio, and received his early education in grammar school and high school. During his early life he was engaged in farming until the outbreak of the civil War, when he enlisted in the Union Army, becoming a private in the 129th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. For nineteen months of the war he served but after that time was discharged on account of ill health, his condition having been caused by excessive exposure. He then returned home to Ohio, and later came to Illinois. Afterward he removed to Nebraska, where he homesteaded, but because of the drought that prevailed there he again went to Illinois, where for three years he was engaged in business. At the end of that period, he removed to Nevada City, Missouri, where he owned one hundred and thirty-five acres of land and lived for twenty-two years. He sold this farm, however, and removed to Texas, where he lost the fortune that he had acquired by long diligent labors, as a result of which misfortune he came to Okmulgee, Oklahoma, to obtain a new start in life. When he and his family arrived in Okmulgee, they leased twenty acres of land, on which they became engaged in the growing of garden products. In this enterprise, Mr. and Mrs. Shick were eminently successful, with the result that the volume of business increased over the years that followed. Mr. Shick came to be widely known throughout the State for the products that he raised in his gardens, while his genial personality and thorough kindliness of character won for him many friends and loyal customers. His death, which occurred May 23, 1907, brought great grief upon the community in which he had lived throughout these later years of his life, for here he had grown to be loved and cherished by all who knew him. In those days one misfortune seemed to follow another; for, on the day when Mrs. Shick's husband was buried, her oldest son passed away, leaving her with a large family to support. During the time in which they were becoming successful in dealing in garden products, they had purchased the farm on which they lived and worked, and were paying the debt that they owed on this purchase in yearly installments. But that was the period of great enterprise in the newly developing oil industry in Oklahoma, and Mrs. Shick was able to lease her family for enough to pay the mortgage. Oil was never discovered on this particular piece of land, with the result that she had it surveyed and divided into lots. Eventually it was taken into the city of Okmulgee, and she sold the lots for about $30,000. She still has, at the time of writing (1928), twelve lots for sale. At one time she invested one hundred dollars in oil stock which ran for several years. At length she sold the stock, however, for eight hundred dollars; and, on April 7, 1923, she bought eighty acres in an oil lease near Shawnee for the price of $400. On November 14, 1928, she sold this lease for forty dollars per acre. She has about $23,000 invested in gilt-edged bonds and mortgages which pay her a handsome return. She has given each of her children a lot on which to build a home, and each of them is now living within a few blocks of her home. Mrs. Shick is, indeed, to be congratulated upon her business ability and her achievements in different enterprises in Oklahoma; for she is, without doubt, one of the outstandingly brilliant and successful business women of her time and one whom the young women of today may do well to emulate. Her maiden name was Sophia Porter, and she was a daughter of Josiah and Susan Porter, the former of whom was a farmer and stock-buyer by occupation. Her marriage to David Shick took place on June 5, 1867, in Grove City, Illinois. Of this union there were the following children: Clara B., born October 16, 1868; Fannie M., born March 30, 1875; Minerva A., born August 5, 1877; Edit O., born November 19, 1879, now deceased; Julia, [sic, s/b Guy] born August 19, 1882, now deceased; David E., born May 28, 1884; Ray, born September 2, 1885; Lina P., born February 24, 1890; and Marguerite, born July 23, 1892.
(Source: Oklahoma, A History of the State and its People, by Joseph B. Thoburn and Muriel H. Wright; Volume IV; Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., New York 1929)

Another source shows children as:

Clara Bell b. abt 1868
Fanny b. 1875
Minerva A. b. 1877
Rose E. b. abt 1878
Edith O. b. 1879
Guy b. 1882
David E. b. 1884
Roy b. 1885
Lina P. b. 1890
Alexandra M. b. 1892