Victor Hugo Stickney was born in Vermont. He attended college and medical school in New Hampshire. After graduating from medical school, he moved to Dickinson in Dakota Territory in 1884 and served as a doctor for the community. He married Margaret Hayes in 1885. He was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, who ranched in the Badlands, and Stickney would later become a director of the Roosevelt Memorial Association. He joined the Medical Corps as 1st Lieutenant in 1917, then as medical aide to Governor Lynn Frazier. The Stickneys had two daughters, Dorothy and Marjorie.
