Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from October 26, 1872

• Over the past week several gunshots were reported overnight in Hickman. So far, the parties involved have eluded law enforcement.
• The Hickman police raided a black owned brothel operated by Mary Weaver on October 21^st. The officers arrested “some eight or ten” young men at the establishment. Miss Weaver was fined $100 and young men $10 each by the Hickman City Court.
• The Fulton County Court met earlier in the week, where it granted W. A. Bryant a license to sell and distribute books and pamphlets, Childers & Thomas were granted a tavern license, and John C. Roper, Walter Fite and C. P. Linder were appointed road county surveyors. W. H. Roper, county sheriff, presented a poll tax delinquent list which consisted of 324 white and 115 black polls. The court ordered a tax credit for 224 white and 82 black polls at $2.00 each. The sheriff also reported $1,401.04 collected in the county for the year 1872. The court contracted to build bridges on the State Road near Milner’s Tanyard over Harris Fork, near Fulton Station, and over the Bayou du Chien near Hickman.
• Richard T. Tyler was elected Common School Commissioner for Fulton County.
• The Levee Tax election held on October 19^th carried 43 to 3 to accept the charter of the Mississippi Levee Company. The landowners of the proposed levee agreed to a $2.00 acre tax on their lands. It is estimated that amount of $40,000 to $50,000 would be raised in Kentucky to support the proposed levee. The landowners in Tennessee had yet to vote on a similar tax proposal.
• The editor of the Hickman Courier wrote that Democrats in many of the counties in First Congressional District held no political meetings regarding the Presidential election and voter turnout was expected to be very low. The attitude in the district was “Greeley is certain to carry Kentucky.”
• Charlie Margraff returned to Hickman and established a barber shop on the Commercial Block.
• The Graves County Fair was scheduled to begin on October 29^th.
• A District Convention of the Temperance Movement planned to meet at Cayce’s Station at the Lady’s Pride Lodge on November 1^st.
• The Paducah News reported the Republican candidate, Henry Houston, possibly could defeat the Democratic candidate, Ed Crossland. The response from the Hickman Courier was that Crossland would receive twice as many votes as Houston and the other candidates running for the congressional seat.
• The poll tax collected $11,688.34 in the First Congressional District.
• Former President Andrew Johnson spoke at Union City, Tennessee on October 26^th. Many people from Hickman attended.
• Farmers from Obion County, Tennessee reported turnips weighing as much fifteen pounds.
• The Dyersburg Progress reported that construction had begun on the Paducah & Memphis Railroad between the Obion River and Newbern, Tennessee. Over one hundred laborers were working on the project and expectations were that it would be completed by April.
• The Trenton News stated that arrangements were agreed upon by the Tennessee Central Railroad to construct a road from Huntingdon to Fulton.
• A mass meeting of Liberal Republican Party met in Cairo, Illinois on October 19^th led by Lyman Trumbull, co-author of the 13^th Amendment. Five thousand people attended the meeting, where Lyman delivered “one of his most effective and forcible speeches” during the Presidential campaign.