Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Stories of Interest from the Hickman Courier from July 4, 1874

• O. Goalder killed a dog in Hickman believed to have rabies.
• D. Kingman and Henry Finch debated the “local option question” on prohibiting liquor sales in Fulton County at the Hickman Palestine Church on June 27^th. The proposed law would replace the license system that was in existence.
• H. Plaut was erecting two tenement houses in East Hickman and John Robinson was planning to build two frame houses in West Hickman to meet the growing need for housing.
• Fritz Hellner was appointed depot agent of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad at Hickman.
• The Beechwood Seminary in Hickman was leased by Professor F. F. Jones and was scheduled to begin classes on September 7^th. Jones was “endorsed as a fine scholar and an educator of experience.”
• The election for School Trustee of the Hickman Common School District was held on July 4^th. The position offered no salary.
• The “great religious revival” continued for its fourth week at the Hickman Methodist Church. Services were held both day and night, and a “large congregation constantly in attendance.” The revival closed on the evening of July 2^nd with a “number of penitents yet at the altar.”
• Black citizens of Hickman were to celebrate the 4^th of July with a procession and picnic. The location was not disclosed.
• A fight occurred at Woodland Mills between four men upon the railroad track and were only a few feet away from being struck by a locomotive.
• Cotton was in full bloom in Fulton County. The earliest recorded bloom for the region. The corn crop was reported as “looking surprising well.”
• A Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was organized in the Montgomery neighborhood of Fulton County on June 30^th.
• A “commodious hotel and supply store” was being erected by H. F. Cheatham near Reelfoot Lake to accommodate “hunters and pleasure seekers.”
• Coggia Comet was spotted by those in the Jackson Purchase region “at 1 o’clock in the morning, directly beneath the polar star.”
• H. Ashcraft received the appointment of Deputy Revenue Collector for Fulton, Hickman, Ballard, Calloway, Graves, Marshall, McCracken and Livingston counties.
• Representative Ed Crossland receives positive recognition for his speech on “Reciprocity with Canada” before Congress earlier in the week.
• Keziah Phelps of Mississippi County was reported to be the oldest woman in the State of Missouri. She claimed to have been born on February 20, 1771, in Buckingham County, Virginia.
• Alfred Johnson, a well-known citizen of Western Kentucky and officer during the Civil War, died at his residence in Marshall County on July 2^nd.