Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from February 25, 1871
• The Kentucky Senate passed the Kuklux bill to suppress lawlessness and crime in the State.
• Many young people enjoyed themselves at a festive dance held the night before at the Commercial Hotel in Hickman.
• George Rice, the proprietor of the New York Store purchased property in West Hickman and commenced improvements.
• Henry Campbell declines to run for State Legislature.
• John Quincy Adams King received the indorsement of the majority of counties in the Jackson Purchase as candidate for Governor.
• The Beech Hill Academy of Hickman, under the tutelage of Joseph H. Roulhac and John W. Cowgill, will start classes on March 13th.
• There is a demand for woolen factories, wood factories, mills etc. by the citizens of Hickman. A Mr. Stamper visited Hickman to prospect establishing a woolen mill within the city.
• The Mississippi River has risen very rapidly in the past week and has reached far up its banks. It is feared that there may be a flood soon.
• Reverend S. X. Hall announced the establishment and endowment of an Odd Fellow’s Widow and Orphans Home near Harrodsburg. The local lodge contributed $1,200 to the cause.
• The Finance Committee of the City Council of Hickman recommended to the Council payments to local merchants to purchase a record book for $6.00 and $58.74 for lumber.
• The Kentucky Legislature postponed the vote to allow people of color to serve as witnesses or testify in State courts.
• Thomas E. Gleeson and Judge B. R. Walker, both of Fulton County, announced their candidacy for the State Legislature for Hickman and Fulton counties. J. F. Hawkins of Madrid Bend has been called upon by the citizens of that district to become a candidate. Dr. D. M. Usher of Lodgeton was also encouraged to run for office.
• Ellis T. Jenkins, Deputy U.S. Marshal of the Eastern District of Missouri, was shot and killed while standing in the sitting room of a hotel in New Madrid. He was believed to have been killed by the son of the Sheriff of New Madrid County during a drunken row.
• The people of Troy, Tennessee are canvassing a railroad construction project which will connect Troy Station to the Paducah & Gulf Railroad. Businessmen of Hickman fear that the project may divert the thousands of cotton bales which arrive from Troy seasonally.
• Numerous law suits against high office holders in Tennessee for violating the 14th Amendment have been suspended by the Federal judges on the “ground of political excitement that would transfer the validity of laws having legislative sanction from legal tribunals.”
• The Paris Intelligencer reports that the wheat crop in Henry County was looking “rather badly” but that as the season advances the prospect of a better crop may emerge.
• The Kentucky Legislature passed an act authorizing the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad Company to extend their line through Columbus to connect with the Mobile & Ohio Railroad.