In the early morning hours of Friday, October 16, 1903, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the life of 47-year-old Isaac Lincoln Hicks, a Special Officer with the Bartlesville Police Department, came to an untimely and tragic end. Hicks, a married father of eight, was nearing the completion of his duties for the night. His final rounds led him to the Southwest Livery Stable, a routine stop on his patrol.
While inside the stable, a sudden and unforeseen accident occurred.
As he went about his work, his service revolver slipped from its holster and fell to the ground. The impact of the fall caused the weapon to discharge. A single bullet struck Officer Hicks in the head, inflicting a fatal wound.
The circumstances of his death were determined to be a tragic accident, a case of inadvertent gunfire. There were no suspects and no arrests were made in connection with the incident. Isaac Lincoln Hicks, a man born in Rockcastle, Kentucky, in 1856, who had made his way to the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, by 1900, was laid to rest in the White Rose Cemetery in Washington, Oklahoma. His sudden and accidental death while on duty left a void in his family and the community he served.
