Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from March 23, 1872

• Recent rains and cold weather in the region had caused delays in plowing and planting.
• The Hickman City Council met on March 21^st. The Finance Committee paid workmen for repairing city roads and John W. Wingate, the City Assessor, for his assessment of city property. A license to operate a coffee house was issued to H. F. Cheatham.
• An infant child was abandoned at the residence of Mrs. Cobb in West Hickman on March 19^th. A woman by the name of King left the child at the Cobb home after searching for a man named Alfred Lynch. It was believed the child was the “illegitimate offspring” of a “criminal association” with a black man.
• A grand ball was to be given by the Deutschen Unterstuetzung Verein (German Assistance Association) at the McCutchen’s Building in Hickman on April 1^st.
• Backenstose’s Circus entertained small crowds in Hickman on March 20^th. It was reported that only thirty-five people attended the afternoon show and more than half were “dead heads.”
• The dwelling of Joseph Campbell, a resident of Fulton County, was destroyed by fire on March 21^st.
• The home of Logan Gilton, six miles from Hickman, was destroyed by fire on the night of March 19^th.
• The Hickman Cornet Band was scheduled to perform at the Hickman City Council Hall on March 30th. Stage scenery was to be provided by the Hickman Dramatic Club.
• W. Bain, Grand Worthy Chief Templar of the State of Kentucky, was scheduled to address the citizens of Fulton County on the topic of Temperance from April 3^rd to April 7^th at various locations in the county.
• Fulton County Sheriff William H. Roper transferred six convicts to the State Penitentiary in Frankfort on March 18th. All the convicts were defined as being “carpet-baggers” not from the county or State of Kentucky.
• The Paducah News reported that young gentlemen in Hickman had been fleeced out of $100 by a self-described French dance master by the name of Begar. The same charlatan was in Paducah weeks earlier.
• The editor of the Hickman Courier wrote that the black vote in the Jackson Purchase would be cast with the Democratic Party in the upcoming Presidential election. His sources found that African Americans in the region believed Radical Republicans were “using them as tools to help themselves to office and that their professions of friendship [were] insincere.”
• The City Council of Columbus enacted public warrants issued by the city be raised to 75 cents from the market value of 50 cents. The continued depreciation of the value of the warrants led to the Council’s decision.
• The Columbus Dispatch declared that the proposed act to change the county boundaries between Hickman and Ballard was not to remove the Hickman County seat from Clinton to Columbus but for the “personal convenience” of those in the effected district.
• N. Chinn, a lawyer from Columbus, died at Belmont, Missouri on March 16^th.
• The Hickman Circuit Court planned to commence on March 25^th at Clinton. The docket included three charges of murder in the first degree.
• Judge A. R. Boon, of the United States District Court, dismissed the indictment against Judge Jonathan H. Price of Louisville who refused to admit the testimony of a black man before the passage of the State testimony bill.
• In Weakley County, Tennessee a knife fight broke out between Albert Moore and man named Hill after Moore attempted to forcibly baptize Hill in a pool of water near Pillowville. Moore wounded Hill severely in the shoulder and thigh. The two were believed to have been inebriated at the time of the incident.
• Woodland Mills, Tennessee reports business was thriving and that several stores and new residences were being constructed in the town.
• Samuel Russel, son of a hotel owner in Paris, Tennessee, accidently shot himself while hunting on March 16^th.
• The hogs in and around Dyersburg, Tennessee were rapidly dying with cholera.