Some of the varieties are Shagbark(Carya Ovata), Bitternut, Pignut(carya glabra),Carolina, and Mexican(Carya Pameri Manning).

Native Americans like the Piscataways used hickory to make tools or tomahawks. Other tribes made snowshoe rims.
The Oil and ground nutmeats were eaten by both Native Americans and early colonists. 
When covered wagons set off westward across the american continent, they often carried spare parts made of hickory in case of broken wheel spokes or axles.

Smokehouses burning hickory have been used for Hickory Smoked Hams!
The nuts are hard to crack but well worth it. I prefer the taste of Hickory to Pecans anytime that I have a choice.
Growing up I remember late in the fall, after the leaves dropped, searching country roads for Shagbark Hickory trees and then with bag in hand picking up the nuts that had fallen to the ground.
Pecans and Walnuts may be more marketable but they can't match the taste of nuts from the old Shagbark Hickory tree.
Now Bitternut and Water Hickory those are inedible.

My Hickory Tree.
Towering close at my cottage door,
Tall and royal, and grand to see.
With broad arms reaching the greensward o'er___
O, a mighty King is my hickory tree!
 
Changing its guise with the changing scene,
As the wheels of the year are Onward rolled;
Clad all the summer in deepest green,
Now resplendent in robes of gold.
 
Here gather the earliest birds of spring,
When the earth awakes from its frozen rest-
The tiny bluebird with sapphire wing,
The robin sweet with its glowing breast,.
 
When vines are green at the window frame,
The brown thrush sings and the dove coos low,
And the oriole comes like a flash of dame,
And hangs its nest from the outmost bow.
 
On the velvet grass, in the grateful shade,
The workmen lie as they rest at noon,
Cheered by the bird songs overhead,
Lulled by the honey bee's drowsy tune.
 
And here, with friends, on summer eves,
We sit in the sunset's mellow glow___
Sit till the night winds toss the leaves,
And moonbeams sift to the sward below.
 
O happy scenes! But now no more
We seek the shade; the wind blows cold;
The frost comes creeping about the door;
The dead flowers rot on the sodden mold.
 
Splendid yet is my hickory tree,
As the gorgeous leaves come fluttering down
Like flakes of gold; but soon I shall see
Only sightless heaps, all sere and brown.
 
Shook by the winds that go hurrying by,
Down to the turf the ripe nuts fall;
And the boughs shall soon stretch toward the sky,
Stripped of their nuts and leaves and all.
 
When deep drifts lie on the frozen farms,
The naked giant in scornful glee,
Shall toss in the storm his strong, bare arms___
O, a mighty King is my hickory tree!
Ellen P. Allerton(1835-1893).

OLD HICKORY

• This was the nickname given to Andrew Jackson for his toughness during the war of 1812.
• It was chosen as the name of the 30th division of US Infantry which fought bravely during Wortld War One and World War Two.
• It is the name of a town NE of Nashville TN in the US
• It is the name of a Highway in North Carolina USA
• and finally it is the name of several furniture makers