This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – May 2, 1874

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from May 2, 1874

• The Mississippi River was reported falling and all “apprehension of higher water … may be dispelled.” Farmers could “with some certainty look forward to uninterrupted farming operations.”
• The Steamer S. White left Hickman on May 2^nd with provisions donated by the citizens of the city to assist flood victims in Memphis and surrounding communities.
• A group of “good citizens” from Hickman crossed the river opposite the city and boarded the Steamer Lone Star, known to be a boat of ill repute, and ordered the craft depart by 2:00 p.m. The captain of the Lone Star “declined to capitulate,” until a larger number of citizens chartered the Steamer Glasgow and crossed over that evening to demand the vessel leave immediately. The Lone Star “cut loose and pulled manfully to get out of harm’s way.”
• The Hickman City Council met on April 26^th and awarded $25 to John W. Cole for services as City Marshal from March 16^th to April 16^th. The Council levied a property tax of 50 cents on each $100 worth of property, a poll tax of $1.50, and $3.00 on every dog. An order was directed to pay Talley & Harding $20 to build a bridge in West Hickman.
• The firm of Davis & Isler shipped 271 bales of cotton on April 29th which was the largest shipment made during the season.
• The State Lecturer of the United Friends of Temperance was to deliver a speech at the Hickman Methodist Church on the night of May 2^nd.
• The Fulton County Convention of Good Templars planned to meet in Hickman on May 5^th and 6^th.
• The tax assessment supervisors of Fulton County were to meet in Hickman on May 2^nd.
• The ball and dinner given by the young men of the Hickman Order of Odd Fellows was “pronounced a delightful affair by all present.”
• The young people of Hickman obtained the use of Miller’s Garden and Hall to have a “grand picnic and dance” to be held on May 14^th. The Hickman Brass and String Band were expected to perform. Admission to the picnic was to be 25 cents.
• The Grangers of Hickman County want an agricultural implements factory established in Southwest Kentucky and pledged their support and patronage to such a project.
• A bridge across Puncheon Creek on the Moscow and Mayfield Road, 46 feet in length, was to be constructed by Dan Roberts of Moscow for the sum of $110.
• The towns of Milburn and Columbus moved to extend the Louisville, Paducah and Southwestern Railroad to the Mississippi River.
• Western Kentucky newspapers report that the fruit crop in the Jackson Purchase was not “materially injured by the late frosts.”
• The First District Council of the Patrons of Husbandry met in Benton on April 23^rd with representatives from all the district’s counties. Most of the meeting was held behind closed doors and they planned to meet at Paducah in July before they adjourned.
• The Executive Committee of the First Judicial District had yet to call a Democratic Convention, though many people in the district desired to have one.
• The Mayfield Democrat endorsed Judge A. R. Boon for Congress.
• The Louisville Ledger reported that “Mormonism is making considerable headway near Farmington in Graves County.” Two Mormon preachers had been holding meetings in the community and thirty families were believed to have been converted to the religion.
• A Mr. Humphreys and Miss Freeman fled Moscow to Belmont to be married. The young lady was accompanied by her parents, but the groom was believed to have “run away” from his parents.
• The Paducah Kentuckian reported that no public library or literary society existed in the Paducah.
• Keen was shot and killed in Kentucky above Cairo, Illinois on April 27^th by J. Hawes. Keen apparently embarrassed and mocked Hawes on the 23^rd and Hawes “vowed vengeance.” Hawes was under arrest.
• John A. Rogers, of Dresden, Tennessee, declared himself a candidate for Circuit Judge in the counties of Carroll, Henry, and Weakley.
• The Dresden Democrat reported that Ben Irvine, a resident of Dresden, Tennessee, found “fifteen dollars in gold, two $5 North Carolina currency, and two $2.50 pieces with the stamp of 1851” at the old Gleason place near town.
• Federal troops stationed at Humboldt, Tennessee had been sent to Little Rock, Arkansas to quell the violence and maintain order during the Brooks-Baxter War.
• Buffalo gnats were reported as “very bad” in the bottoms around Dyersburg, Tennessee.
• The Trenton News Gazette reported the birth of four boys to the wife of Jack Hill of Gibson County, Tennessee.
• Representatives from the Christian Churches of West Tennessee held a meeting on May 1^st to devise a plan for a “more thorough union of all the Churches” in the region.