Mary Hickman (maiden name: Shepherd) was born around 1826 in England. She immigrated to America by the 1840s and probably settled in Boston, Massachusetts. She married Edward Hickman there, and they had at least four children: John, born around 1848; Sarah, who was born in 1850 and died sometime in the 1850s; Samuel, born on December 30, 1852; and Sarah, born on August 7, 1858.
The family moved to Pennsylvania in the late 1840s, and by 1850, they were living in Morgan County, Illinois. Her husband worked as a farmer, and by 1850, they owned $300 of real estate. The family may have returned to Massachusetts in the early 1850s, but by the early 1860s, they were back in Morgan County, Illinois. Her husband enlisted in the Union army on August 5, 1862, and he died in Resaca, Georgia, on June 7, 1864. She married Joseph Barrowclough on March 31, 1868. They lived in Arcadia, Illinois, and her husband worked as a farmer. By 1870, they owned $3,300 of real estate and $300 of personal property. She died sometime after 1880.