This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – April 4, 1874
Apr
04
2024
Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from April 4, 1874
- The Mississippi River was reported receding and that farmers in the lowlands could “now consider themselves pretty safe, but not altogether so.”
- A heavy frost on the morning of April 2nd damaged many fruit trees in the region.
- A man and his wife were knocked unconscious in their home on Pine Steet in Hickman, when the man used a gun that had not been fired for over eight years from his window. He and his wife were propelled into the hearth of the fireplace where he suffered a dislocated shoulder and his wife’s “teeth were imbedded in his scalp.” Both were reported to have recovered from the incident.
- The Hickman City Council met on March 30th to settle accounts submitted by the Finance and Street Committees. A coffee house license was granted to H. F. Cheatham and John C. Heinze for six months. The City Marshal was directed to notify property owners to repair sidewalks before their residencies within ten days. A lengthy petition was presented by the ladies of Hickman not to issue liquor licenses to saloon keepers until a vote on the temperance law was to be held next month. The Council decided not to “anticipate the adoption of the new law and ordered licenses to be issued.”
- The “whiskey war” in Hickman was all the excitement as intoxicated men stayed indoors or were “guarded by the police for protection.” The May election on Temperance was the big question on the minds of many residents of the city. Editorials in the Hickman Courier strongly oppose the proposed law as being too radical.
- Judge A. D. Kingman addressed the black Methodist Church in Hickman on April 1st. Elder Warren Thompson pledged to organize a Colored Temperance Society at the meeting. Several names were presented for membership.
- The Hickman String Band planned to have a ball at the City Hall on April 6th.
- The Hickman Juvenile Dancing Club scheduled a ball at the City Hall for the evening of April 10th.
- McCracken County Sheriff, Thomas D. Grundy, instituted a lawsuit against the Louisville Commercial claiming $25,000 in damages for reporting Grundy as being intoxicated while taking prisoners to the penitentiary.
- Appellate Judge William Lindsay, of Clinton, announced his candidacy for Governor of Kentucky.
- Caswell Bennet, of Livingston County, announced himself a candidate for Congress in the First District. Rumors stated that Thomas Moss, of McCracken County, and W. C. Machen, of Lyon County, planned to declare their candidacies soon.
- A secret society called the Knights of Honor began organizing lodges in the region.
The Mayfield Democrat announced the marriage of James Leggett of Buckskull, Missouri and Sallie Drinkard of Bucksnort, Tennessee.