Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from January 6, 1872
• The elections for Hickman City Officers were held on January 1st. H. A. Tyler was elected mayor and the council members elected were Samuel Landrum, N. P. Harness, Thaddeus W. Thomas, H. S. Campbell, John Troutweine and Jacob Frenz.
• The Hickman City Council met on January 3rd and the City Clerk certified the election results. The City Treasurer, C. A. Holcombe, paid the judges, marshal and clerk that oversaw the elections. The City Tax Collector, John A. Wilson, reported $149.75 was collected and the City Clerk, W. A. Brevard, declared that $2,248.50 was collected from settlements. Mrs. M. E. Rose and William Robinson were compensated for putting rock along the riverbank in Old Hickman. B. C. Ramage reported for the Hickman Cemetery Committee that 15 lots were purchased in 1870 and 1871 for $96.00 and $106.25 was invested in improving the cemetery. The new council members were to be officially inducted into office on January 8th.
• The editor of the Hickman Courier wrote that the “holidays from Christmas to New Year was the scene of many activities.” The Planter’s House Hotel ended the year with an “excellent dinner” for the Hickman Cornet Band and had many other parties and entertainment scheduled throughout the holiday season. Christmas trees were decorated at the Methodist and German Lutheran churches and “enjoyed by the attendants and the little children especially.”
• The new instruments of the Hickman Cornet Band were lost in fire aboard a train car en route from Chicago to Cairo. Insurance was to cover the loss.
• The Hickman Masonic Lodge elected the following officers: J. H. Roulhac, S. N. White, Charles Baltzer, John W. Cowgill and W. D. Taylor.
• The Hickman firm of Overton, Steele & Company dissolved by mutual consent after the retirement of John C. Gardner.
• Charles Holcombe constructed a new front to his drug store in Hickman.
• J. H. Plaut and Brothers purchased the Ledwidge building on the corner of Jackson and Kentucky Streets in Hickman. The new owner planned to tear down the old wooden structure and build a substantially larger brick structure.
• The Hickman grocers Powell & Brothers doubled the size of their business and “have it packed and jammed with groceries.”
• The Independent Order of Good Templars planned to hold a Temperance Convention on February 22nd at the Hickman Lodge.
• William McClusky, mail agent for the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad, died at his Hickman residence on December 29th.
• The young daughter of Mr. Greer tragically burned to death after her clothing caught fire by the family home’s hearth.
• Mrs. Robert Faris of Fulton County died earlier in the week.
• The DeSoto House in Columbus was burned to the ground at three o’clock in the morning on December 27th. The building was valued at $4,000 and the furniture at $3,000.
• Reverend J. H. Roulhac married Bynum S. Parham to Molly Duffy on December 21st.
• Christmas day was celebrated in the City of Murray with a foxhunt in which four or five hundred hunters participated. The event failed to go off as planned as only “three hounds could be persuaded to budge on the hunt” and the fox was chased up a tree after only twenty minutes.
• The Mayfield Democrat reported that a band of horse thieves were stealing and carrying off a large number of horses from between Metropolis, Illinois and Paris, Tennessee. A group of men from Boydsville pursued and captured the robbers with one of the thieves shot and seriously wounded. All the stolen property was recovered.
• Albert Gibbs was killed in Dresden, Tennessee on December 14th after being thrown from a runaway wagon. “His skull was crushed to jelly by the horse’s hoofs” it was reported. Witnesses stated he had been drinking prior to the accident.
• The daughter of James Harrold of Paris, Tennessee was removed from her grave for examination and found to be in a “state of perfect preservation” after being buried over four years ago.
Jackson Purchase Historical Society