At the time of Mona Mary's death in 1917, her family had played a significant role in the town of Market Drayton, Shropshire for over 60 years and were still prominent there. The Hickmans owned and ran several successful businesses in the town, foremost among them being their horse slaughterers business. In spite of this great legacy, the family had not always lived the high life. Legend has it that they first came to Drayton on a horse and cart and the records do show that the patriarch of the family indeed worked as a rag dealer in the earliest appearance of the family in the town.

The Hickmans came to Drayton in the 1850s. They travelled there from Ruiton in Staffordshire where, again, Hickmans had already enjoyed a long legacy of their own. Like many families in Ruiton, some Hickmans were nailers, some miners but what the Hickmans of Ruiton were best known for was as traders in salt and sand.

The Watton, Hickman and Harper families of Upper Gornal and Ruiton were probably the three families who dominated the trade in the area.

For the four warmer months of the year the families travelled by horse drawn cart around the countryside selling the salt in blocks and sand. During the other months the carts were covered with tarpaulin and they travelled selling various tools, buckets, chains, nails etc.

The Ruiton people were well known for their scrupulous cleanliness and took great pride in polishing all their horse brasses. Source (discontinued): Sedgley trades