Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from October 28, 1871
• A number of citizens spoke of petitioning the State Legislature for the authority to submit a road tax to the voters of Fulton County. They argue that the existing system was “unequal and inefficient.”
• Several “pleasure parties” from Hickman and St. Louis encamped on Reelfoot Lake to hunt and fish. The Hickman party consisted of a number of the city’s most estimable ladies and gentlemen.
• Susan M. Atwood, a very respectable Christian lady of Hickman, died at the residence of her son-in-law N. P. Harness on October 25th.
• The funeral for Elijah Hawkins was to be held at the Pleasant Grove Church near Hickman on October 29th.
• William H. Hays and Anna M. Trent, both of Hickman, were married on October 26th.
• The Hickman City Council discussed building a new walkway through to West Hickman.
• Powell & Brother greatly expanded their storeroom in Hickman.
• The brickwork on the new Fulton County jail was completed.
• The cities of Cairo and Paducah competed to collect the most donations to assist the victims of the Chicago Fire.
• The Superintendent of Public Instruction reported that counties in the Jackson Purchase received $57,256.20 to support public schools in the region, which was $2.30 for each child.
• The railroad route from Paducah to Dyersburg, via the Paducah & Memphis Railroad, was to begin operation on January 1st.
• An editorial in the Frankfort Yeoman, in response to the Hickman Courier, encouraged “pauper counties” of the Jackson Purchase to secede and become part of Tennessee. The Yeoman asserted that the complaints of neglect against the State of Kentucky by the Courier were unjust and unfounded. The Courier declared the Yeoman to be a partisan newspaper with no knowledge of the politics of the region.
• The Louisville Ledger reported that the Hickman Courier made an error by publishing an article, which stated that citizens of the Jackson Purchase desired to separate from Kentucky and become part of Tennessee. The Courier responded that the Ledger was misinformed and that “people of this section look favorably upon a proposition of annexation to Tennessee.”
• A passenger train on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad was robbed at Union City, Tennessee on the evening of October 21st. An estimated $4000 was taken from the express car safe.
• The Dyersburg Progress reported that Sam Lauderdale of Hickman won the first prize award for ugliest man at the Dyer County Fair. Henry Wynn, also of Fulton County, was awarded second prize. Both were paraded around the fairgrounds as a band played a “soul inspiring strain of martial music.”
Jackson Purchase Historical Society