He was granted the eight square league Rancho San Juan de los Moquelumnes in 1844.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored.
"Uncle Billy" Hicks died in 1884 at his home in Hicksville, Sacramento County, a town no longer in existence.
Hicksville dissolved in 1889 when the Central Pacific Railroad made Galt its headquarters between Lodi and Sacramento.
Hicks acquired Rancho Sanjon de los Moquelumnes in 1861, but lost in mortgage foreclosure to John F. McCauley in 1867.