Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from November 18, 1871
• The November term of the Fulton County Court met during the past week. Asa Kimbro was appointed overseer of the county road between Moscow and Mayfield and Joe Dougal appointed to oversee the State road between the city limits and the crossing of the Nashville & Northwest Railroad. A petition was granted to W. W. Webster to upgrade the Moscow and Troy road along the railroad track.
• The Hickman City Council met on November 11th to amend the City Market Ordinance. All retailers and dealers that sold vegetables and meats at the City Market House must now pay a special tax of $50 a year and could only sell produce between 2:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. during the week.
• The annual report of the Fulton County Agricultural Society listed that the Society had assets close to $1,400.
• The trade at Hickman was declared as being “remarkably good.”
• The Hickman Cornet Band gave a ball at the City Hall on November 16th. Many of the community’s “most fashionable citizens” attended the affair.
• The X, Y, Z’s squad of Hickman paraded in the city streets on the night of November 16th. The men wore “white coats and blue caps” and their captain mounted a “gallant charger.”
• The infant child of T. B. Barnes was mistakenly given morphine, intended for the mother, by the grandmother and died.
• Tom W. Neal, editor of the Dyersburg Progress, visited Hickman to solicit advertisements for his newspaper.
• Landowners of the Mississippi bottomlands in Obion and Lake Counties in Tennessee held preliminary discussions with landowners from Kentucky to build a levee from Hickman to Tiptonville.
• The Mayfield Democrat published a series of articles supporting a charter be given to the Cincinnati Railroad Company to construct a railroad line through southwest Kentucky. The Democrat also reported that some businessmen were discussing the possibility of setting up a stock company to construct a canal from Mayfield Creek to the Ohio River.
• The Paducah Kentuckian stated that “Conservative elements” proposed to overthrow the “Radicalism in the next Presidential contest.”
• Thomas Brannon of Ballard County died the week prior. He was one hundred years old and the father of twenty children. It was noted that he served under General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in 1814.
• The trial of Jack Wilson for murder, held at Blandville, ended in a hung jury as eight sought conviction and four for acquittal. Wilson was released on bond for two thousand dollars.
• The Southwest Kentucky and West Tennessee Agricultural and Mechanical Association ordered 5,000 copies of General William B. Bate’s speech given at Union City, Tennessee on October 3, 1871.
• The McKenzie Times reports the farmers in the region are busy sowing wheat, as the weather has been very favorable.
• A meeting held at Paris, Tennessee discussed a proposition to build a railroad line from St. Louis to Atlanta via Columbus, Paris and Columbia, Tennessee.
• The Tennessee Legislature ratified a resolution making Hickman a permanent terminus of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad. Negotiations were pending on the Railroad’s purchase of riverfront property in Hickman to construct the terminal.
• A proposition was delivered before the Tennessee Legislature to improve the navigation of the Forked Deer River from Dyersburg to Hale’s Point on the Mississippi River.
• The Dyersburg Progress reported that the city of Cairo, Illinois offered the owners of a rolling mill in Paducah a “large bonus” to relocate to their community.
• The Jackson Whig and Tribune reports that the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad would be completed from Huntingdon to Jackson, Tennessee before the end of the year.