Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from July 8, 1871
• Seventeen passengers were killed and twenty-three wounded when a train operated by the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad traveling between Nashville and Hickman plunged into the Harpeth River on the evening of July 3rd. The bridge that traversed the river was believed to be defective and an investigation was reported underway.
• The African-American population of Fulton County had a grand celebration on July 4th. The procession through Hickman numbered over several hundred.
• The Finance Committee of the Hickman City Council paid W. L. McCutchen $64 for timbers for the new Market House. W. T. Linebeck was contracted to build the Market House for $100.
• A mechanic from Jordan Station invented a double diamond plow and applied for a patent of invention.
• L. S. Trimble, former congressional representative from the First Congressional District opened a banking house in Paducah.
• The schools of Fulton County enjoyed a vacation until the fall.
• The editor of the Hickman Courier believed that there was not an idle carpenter in the city and a large fall trade was anticipated.
• The county court was scheduled to convene on July 10th.
• Hog cholera was spreading at an alarming rate in the counties of Fulton and Hickman.
• Over 600 people attended a picnic at Pierce’s Station south of Fulton on June 30th. Mr. Cardwell of the Odd-Fellows and Reverend Carter gave addresses and the Union City Brass Band entertained the attendees.
• The candidates for the State Legislature and Senate spoke at Clinton on July 3rd, Moscow on July 4th, Lodgton on the 5th, Fulton Station on the 7th and Rock Springs in Fulton County on the 8th.
• The Fulton County Jail Commission met on July 8th to select a location to place the new jail.
• The Hickman Steam Wagon Factory established sales offices in Arkansas and Texas and reported a large number of orders for wagons.
• The Temperance Convention at Mayfield on July 4th was well attended and reported as a “happy occasion.”
• John W. Malone withdrew from the race for the State Legislature in Fulton and Hickman counties.
• A “distinguished aeronaut” was engaged to ascend in a balloon on the second day of the Fulton County Fair scheduled in August.
• State Superintendent of Public Instruction Z. F. Smith designated Paducah as the site for the Teachers Institute of the First Congressional District. The Institute was to be composed of teachers and commissioners of each county in the Congressional District.
• The landowners and residents of the “Bottom District” between Hickman and New Madrid planned to meet on July 10th to consider a proposition to construct a levee.
• A young man by the name of Charles Schaffer was stabbed and killed in the village of Fancy Farm on July 1st. The murder was believed to have been committed by Tom Marshall who made his escape soon after the act.
• The corn crop in Fulton County was reported to be the finest ever known.
• Ed Crossland, member of the United State Congress, made a speech in Paducah on the evening of July 9th. It was reported to be a “first rate one” by the Paducah Herald.
• The Paducah & Gulf Railroad purchased the railroad tracks between the Kentucky State line and Troy, Tennessee from the New Orleans & Ohio Railroad Company for $175,000.
• W. R. Hamby, former editor and owner of the Paris Intelligencer, purchased the Union City Courier.
• Emerson Etheridge delivered a two-hour speech before the Farmers’ Club of Carroll County, Tennessee on the subject of fertilizers.
Jackson Purchase Historical Society