This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – February 15, 1873

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from February 15, 1873

• A heavy snowfall covered the region on February 12^th.
• A case of smallpox was discovered in the Fulton County jail. The community was in “great fear” of the disease spreading and demanded the prisoner be removed. The man was relocated to a house several miles away where other patients resided. The owner of the house later filed a damage suit against the judge for relocating smallpox patients to his family residence.
• A serious accident occurred at the wagon factory of Hertweck, Baltzer & Company when a piece of timber was violently ejected by a steam powered saw and struck Max Hertweck in the face. Both eyes were reported injured, but doctors were not sure whether it would affect his vision.
• The steamer Glasgow traveled to Johnsonville, Tennessee to retrieve another wharf boat to accommodate the increase in trade at Hickman.
• A barge loaded with corn towed by the steamer Glasgow from Hickman sank near Cairo on February 8^th.
• The Hickman City Council met on February 12^th to pay city contractors and declared T. O. Goalder as new City Judge after his election victory on February 11^th. The Council also directed the City Marshal to procure a place to erect a pest house to place smallpox patients. The structure was to be constructed with two rooms fourteen feet square, with a chimney in the middle, and have “suitable windows and doors.”
• W. Lauderdale was scheduled to preach at the Hickman Baptist Church on 15^th and 16^th of February.
• The temperance lecture by A. R. Boon was cancelled on account of the “wretched weather.”
• The Circuit Court met in Hickman during the week and a large number of indictments were handed down for “smaller offences.”
• An old citizen of Fulton County, who was serving as a jury member, was fined one dollar for contempt of court when he uttered “dang, sir” to the Circuit Court Judge.
• George W. Silvertooth, of Fulton County, was considered a candidate for Circuit Court Judge.
• Judge B. R. Walker hinted that he may run a campaign for the State Legislature in the upcoming election. W. B. McConnel and Thomas M. French were also considered to be potential candidates for the district seat.
• Gun shots were exchanged between members of the Steenberger family and men by the name of McClair and McGuire in eastern part of Fulton County. One of the Steenberger’s was believed to have been very seriously wounded and McClair slightly wounded. McClair and McGuire both escaped.
• The Clinton Female Seminary was scheduled to open soon for spring classes.
• A swindler by the name of J. S. Chamber was reported by the Mayfield Democrat to have misrepresented himself as an agent for a magazine company from Boston. After collecting $30 and $40 subscriptions he departed, and the monthly serials never arrived.
• The Chairman of the Conservative Central Committee, L. D. Husbands, issued a call for a primary election to choose a nominee for the Mayor of Paducah. The Republican Party selected Ben Braselton as a candidate earlier in the month and the Democrats were still in the selection process.
• Coal was reported discovered eight miles from Paducah and plans were made to extract it.
• A forty-six-year-old woman from Gardner Station, Tennessee gave birth to her fifteenth child according to the West Tennessee Democrat. The child weighed 15 ¾ pounds at birth.
• Four prisoners escaped the city jail in Troy, Tennessee. One of the prisoners was noted as having contracted smallpox and that some citizens declined to offer assistance fearing recapture which may further spread the disease.
• The Jackson Whig and Tribune reported that multiple train cars had arrived loaded with iron ties and materials for laying track for the Mississippi Central Railroad extension to the city.
• T. Williams married Miss M. M. Gray at the residence of John K. Williams in Fulton County on January 30^th.
• Milton B. Shaw married Susan Simmons on February 12^th in Fulton County.
• William H. Treas married Mary Roper, daughter of former Sheriff W. H. Roper, in Hickman earlier in the month.
• Martha A. Finch, daughter of H. C. and Elizabeth Plummer Finch, died on January 8^th after an illness of seven days of the “most complicated and excruciating form ever borne by a mortal being.”
• Pattie Buckley, wife of Bolivar Buckley, died at the residence of T. O. Morris in Obion County, Tennessee on February 9th. She left behind four young children.