Solomon Hickman was probably born near Jerusalem Town, or "Funck's Jerusalem Town," now Funkstown, Frederick Co., Maryland, on 10 Nov 1770. Like Jacob Funck, who founded Jerusalem in 1767, the Hickmans were of German ancestry, as were many of the Jerusalem Town folk. Solomon's father, Charles Hickman or Heckman, may have emigrated from the German Palatinate, and later removed his family by way of Frederick Co., Maryland, to present-day German Township, Fayette Co., Pennsylvania, in or about the year 1772 — a place so named for the many German families who resettled there from eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
     Southwestern Pennsylvania was opened for settlement by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. The name of Charles Hickman is listed by Ellis from "an old account book" of William Colvin, early Redstone trader, dated 1768 or shortly thereafter. In 1771, Hickman and his wife, Hannah, deeded property in Jerusalem Town to one Isaac Israels for £50 Pennsylvania currency and probably relocated permanently to Redstone in 1772. Title to his "400 acres on Dunlap's creek, including his settlement made in 1772" was acknowledged by Virginia officials in 1779. His friend George Craft came to Dunlap's Creek about the same time, selling lands on the Pennsylvania-Maryland border to Patrick Mowney in 1771. Ellis credits this "George Kroft" as "the very first" settler who "came into Redstone to stay," but his migration to Dunlap's Creek was probably coordinated with Hickman's. Both are named in the 1773 tax rolls for Springhill Twp., Bedford Co., Pennsylvania, which evidently included all of present-day Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties.
     
By Michael Secilia May 2023