This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – May 30, 1874

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from May 30, 1874

• Old buildings on the corner of Jackson and Kentucky streets in Hickman were to be torn down by order of the City Council. Thirty years earlier, one of the buildings was occupied by the Larmon & Brothers Dry Goods Store. Several black families were removed from the structures.
• The Hickman City Council met on May 25^th to discuss the granting of licenses, outstanding accounts, repairing streets, and addressing property tax issues. A license was granted to Joseph Steagala to operate a coffee shop for six months, John W. Cole was awarded $4.00 to remove dead carcasses, J. H. Piaut agreed to tear down a dilapidated building at Ledwidge corner to satisfy back taxes on the property, H. C. Catlett’s tax assessment was reduced from $1500 to $1200, and repairs were ordered for Water, Kentucky, and Union streets and holes to be filled on Moscow Avenue.
• A school election was to be held in Hickman on July 4^th to elect a school trustee to oversee the construction of a “common schoolhouse” to accommodate the school district. All white persons over the age of 21, including “widow women who have children between the ages of 6 and 20 years old,” were eligible to vote.
• John W. Cowgill announced his candidacy for Hickman City Judge.
• A “musical feast” was scheduled for June 4^th at the German Church in Hickman.
• The German Picnic in Hickman on May 25^th was well attended and a “delightful occasion throughout to all.” Candidates for county offices were spotted among the attendees.
• Some members of the Hickman Amateur Singers gave a small concert in town on May 27^th and 28^th in preparation for their rendition of “Queen Esther” in several weeks.
• A small party of excursionists chartered the steamer Glasgow from Hickman to Columbus on May 24^th. The Glasgow was chartered for another “pleasure party” to Tiptonville or Point Pleasant the following week.
• An eleven-year-old girl by the name of Sally Knight, left unattended two years earlier at the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad Depot in Hickman, was reported to be homeless in the city. She was partially paralyzed, walked with difficulty, “rather sprightly, but entirely uneducated.” The County Judge sought a suitable home for the child.
• J. T. Turner, a teenage boy from below Hickman, committed suicide by hanging himself on the night of May 23^rd. It was believed that he hung himself after being whipped and humiliated by his father the previous evening.
• The annual meeting of the Fulton County Bible Society was held on May 24^th at the Hickman Methodist Church. H. C. Bailey was elected President, and the annual address was delivered by Reverend J. D. Bush, the pastor of the Methodist Church. The Marshall County Bible Society donated $63.60 for the purchase of bibles.
• According to the Assessor’s Book of Fulton County for 1874 there were 3,573 hogs over six months old, 385,525 pounds of tobacco, 1,137 tons of hay, 441,425 bushels of corn, and 39,914 bushels of wheat in the county.
• The Mayfield Democrat reported that James A. Odle was shot and killed in Boydsville on May 23^rd by a man named Abernathy.
• J. Stoddart Johnston, candidate for Governor, was touring the Jackson Purchase seeking a possible running mate.
• The Paducah News reported that the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, met in Paducah to discuss the temperance question.
• The former United States President, Andrew Johnson, was expected to attend a Masonic celebration on June 24^th at Paducah.
• Two boys in Weakley County, Tennessee were playing with an ax when one boy accidentally cut off the hand of the other. The father of the wounded boy retaliated by beating the other boy to death before seeking medical assistance for his son.
• The name of the newspaper Troy Signal was changed to the Obion County News.
• Corn was reported to have been sold at $7.00 per barrel in Dyer County, Tennessee.
• On May 23^rd a brawl broke out in James Bayou, Missouri where Bob Howard was “cut in the bowels, face and breast, and shot in the hand,” Charles Colston was severely cut in the head and “his breastbone mashed in,” Charles Helm was cut through the arm and a bullet glance off his forehead, and Andy Parker was shot through the side. All parties involved in the clash were arrested and held in the Mississippi County jail. Howard later died from his wounds.
• Mit Tanner, a citizen of Mississippi County, Missouri, was conveyed to an insane asylum after he “lost his reason” during a “religious excitement” the week prior.
• H. Clay Goff, a former resident of Tiptonville, Tennessee, was shot and killed near his home at Frenchman’s Bayou, Arkansas on May 23^rd. Two suspects were arrested for the murder.
• Mrs. Samuel G. Goulden died on May 28^th at the residence of her son-in-law in Hickman.