The Hico post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Beets (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 239131 years
Founding year: the first Hico post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Hico’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hico. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1910Fayetteville sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hico.
The story so far
Hico, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hico yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hico is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. Hico is located at the junction of U.S. routes 19 and 60, 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Fayetteville. Hico has a post office with ZIP code 25854. As of the 2020 census, its population was 239 (down from 272 at the 2010 census). Some believe that the community was named after a variety of tobacco called hico, while others believe the name is a transfer from Hyco, Virginia (an extinct town). On April 2, 2024, an EF2 tornado caused significant damage just to the south of Hico.
Its first post office opened in 1895. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 272 to 239 (-12%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hico in 1926
Passages that mention Hico, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of fayette county west virginia1926 · page 669Read the page →
Read the text
The first post office was established at Beets, and was kept by Frank McClung, a son-in-law of John Beets for whom the office was named. In the year 1889 Mr. Joseph A. Sandige was appointed post master, and at his suggestion the name was changed to Hico, because of the confusion between the name of Beets and an office in Tyler county by name of Bretts. The name of Hico was selected, because at the time of the change the post master was dealing with a tobaceo firm in Hyco, Virginia, the brevity and ring of the name
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hico, 1882 to 1910
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
