Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from August 5, 1871
• The State and local elections were set for August 7th and the candidates were making their last minute pitches to secure votes. The Hickman Courier supported the Democratic ticket of William C. Clark for State Senator, Preston H. Leslie for Governor, and John G. Carlisle for Lieutenant Governor.
• The four-year-old daughter of William C. Clark, candidate for State Senate, died very suddenly on August 4th.
• The City Council of Hickman met on August 2nd where B. C. Ramage, Chairman of the Street Committee reported $631.75 was spent on road maintenance. John C. Gardner, wharf master, reported he collected $834 from January 1st to August 1st. C. H. Hubbard received $330.90 for putting rock on the riverbank and W. L. McCutchen was paid $75 for brick to be used for the new Market House. T. O. Goalder was appointed as head of a special committee to receive bids for printing the revised city ordinances and charter.
• The Hickman Star Band concluded to hold a Grand Tournament at the Hickman County Fair Grounds on September 1st. They invited the “gallantry and chivalry of Western Kentucky and Tennessee to a fair competition of skill.”
• Charles Oswald, owner of Oswald’s Steam Furniture Factory in Hickman, traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana to establish a business branch there.
• Professor E. C. L. Denton, formerly of Milburn College, became director of the Male and Female Seminary at Fulton Station. Classes were scheduled to commence on September 4th.
• A man by the name of Daniel Lacewell was killed in Missouri, opposite of Hickman, on August 1st. James Snow of Pierce’s Station, Tennessee, who had an ongoing feud with Lacewell, shot him in the head and escaped.
• A. W. Blackford, an agent for the Howe Sewing Machine Company, established a shop in Hickman.
• The Episcopalians in Hickman plan to rebuild a church in the city.
• Reverend S. A. Steele planned to preach at the Methodist Church of August 12th and 13th.
• Proposals for constructing a new county jail were to be received by the Board of Commissioners by August 19th.
• The Mayfield Democrat reported that Fulton Station had grown very rapidly and that some of the citizens wished to rename the community either Paschall or Carrville in honor of the two most enterprising businessmen in town.
• The State Teachers’ Association of Kentucky planned to have its annual meeting in Paris on August 8th.
• The committee organized to build a levee and railroad from Hickman to Madrid Bend plan to meet at the Lake County Courthouse in Tiptonville on August 10th.
• R. B. McGee, one of the wealthiest residents of Trenton, Tennessee, was charged for passing counterfeit money and placed in the county jail by the sheriff. It was reported that McGee had a trunk of over $12,000 of counterfeit money that was found in his possession. He later attempted to escape the jail the night of his capture but was quickly recaptured.
• A hot-air balloon piloted by T. H. Williams caught fire at Union City and plummeted to the earth. Williams fortunately jumped from the airship and latched onto a branch of a tall tree. The balloon was described as a “mere piece of patchwork, weighing 666 pounds and measuring 115 feet in height and 125 feet in circumference.”
Jackson Purchase Historical Society