Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from February 8, 1873
- River traffic on the Ohio resumed after having been suspended for two months due to weather and ice.
- The German Masquerade Ball in Hickman on February 3rd was reported as being well attended, despite the “disagreeable weather,” and was found to have “no imperfections.” The participants were dressed in costumes that represented “classic, historic, mythological and dramatic characters.”
- The profits from Mardi Gras ball scheduled for February 25th was determined to go for the purchase of a fire engine for the city of Hickman. Entertainment would begin at 3:00 with a parade through Jackson and Clinton Streets, then to West Hickman and conclude at the hall of the Teutonia Singing Society. The ball was to start at 8:00 that evening. Tickets were $1.25.
- The Hickman City Council called for a special election for city court judge on February 11th following the resignation of Judge J. H. Davis. The two candidates were T. O. Goalder and R. E. Millet.
- The Hickman City Council prepared an amendment to the city charter to authorize a subscription of $40,000 to the Mississippi Levee & Railroad Company. The amendment would be put to a vote by citizens of the city.
- Judge A. R. Boon was to deliver a lecture to the Good Templars on February 11th at the Hickman Methodist Church.
- F. McCutchen, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, was scheduled to preach at the Hickman Methodist Church on February 9th.
- The companies of Bondurant & Drewry and Plaut & Brothers, that lost warehouses due a massive fire the week before, were temporarily occupying the Railroad Warehouse.
- A man by the name of Foley, a hotel keeper in Columbus, was killed by an “Irishman” earlier in the week.
- Notices were placed “along the line of the Mississippi Central” declaring no construction will be permitted on the railroad until the debts of past work were paid in full.
- The smallpox scare was reported to have subsided in Paducah.
- A railroad bridge over the Ohio River near Paducah was proposed to be completed before the end of 1873.
- A bill was before the Kentucky Legislature to provide a system of common schools for the education of African American children. The proposed institutions would be separate and distinct from white schools. A correspondent from Paducah wrote the Hickman Courier that this bill was a “movement for the taxation of white men for the schooling of negroes and should be at once frowned down.”
- A bill was pending before the United States Congress to charter a company to construct tunnels under the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers between Illinois and Missouri and from Illinois to Kentucky.
- The Trenton Gazette urged the citizens of the town to support a vote for a railroad tax.
- D. Jones and Mary J. Jones were married February 5th at the Fulton County Courthouse after the groom traveled over forty miles on frigidly cold day.
- The Brownsville Bee Reported that a fire on the bluffs of Fort Pillow had been lighting the night skies for over twenty-four weeks. It was believed a fine vein of lignite coal was the cause of the blaze.