Jackson Purchase Historical Society

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

• The Hickman City Council met on August 31^st to settle debts, pay private contractors and resolve claims against the city. H. A. Tyler was awarded $30 for putting rock on the riverbank before Lot No. 1 in old Hickman.
• The Acting Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of the First Congressional District of Fulton County published an invitation to other county committees to meet in Paducah on September 8^th to discuss holding a Congressional Convention.
• Nick Combs of Hickman grew a sweet potato that weighed over six pounds and was seven inches thick.
• The Hickman Courier reported that its subscription list was larger than any time since the establishment of the newspaper in 1859.
• The Fifth Annual Convention of the Fulton County Teacher’s Institute met on August 24^th at Pleasant Hill for three days. William A. Jones was elected President, E. E. Creed as Vice President and J. H. Saunders as Secretary. It was noted the “lectures were generally good and seemed to indicate some improvement in education.”
• On August 31st, the Fulton County Agricultural & Mechanical Society decided not to hold the annual county fair that year due to the severe drought and financial distress in the region. The Society also discussed selling the grounds and assets since the County Fair had not been financially successful in recent years. A new company to manage the fairgrounds was proposed.
• An unnamed company showed interest in leasing the Fulton County Fairgrounds for one week for the “purpose of a grand tournament and racecourse each day.” A purse of $100 a day was to be offered to the winner.
• A sales agent was reported canvassing Fulton County selling the book Hitchcock’s Analysis of the Bible, which the editor of the Hickman Courier found to be a “wonderful work.”
• The Fulton Gazette reported that the “protracted meeting” at the Pleasant Hill Methodist Church ended on August 28^th. Twenty-eight people were added to the congregation.
• James L. Moss withdrew his “notice of intention to contest the election of Smith R. Taylor” for the clerkship of Hickman County.
• The prohibition law went into effect in Moscow on September 2^nd.
• For over two weeks, a revival led by Reverend J. W. Knott of the Methodist Church in Moscow resulted in “some twenty conversions and twelve additions to the church.”
• The Patrons of Husbandry for the counties in the First Congressional District planned to meet in Mayfield on September 18^th.
• The Democratic newspapers in Paducah and Mayfield united to call for a Congressional Convention. The Princeton Banner suggested the date of September 24^th to hold the nominating convention.
• The Granger orders of Union City, Woodland Mills, and Hoosier Valley united and established a farm supplement store at Union City.
• Reverend J. R. Graves, a prominent Baptist preacher, published a letter in the McKenzie Times seeking a debate with the Presbyterian Minister James R. Collingsworth.
• The murder of 15 black prisoners in Trenton, Tennessee the week prior, “excited a storm of indignation throughout the country” and many declared the horrific act “senseless and unnecessary.” Nathan Bedford Forrest stated, “he stood ready to start tomorrow to assist the officers of the law in bringing the assassins to punishment.” The incident allegedly began when two white men got into an argument with a few black men on the price of barbeque meats at a picnic of black families in the Gibson County.
• Gibson County reported it will not have a county fair this fall.
• Phillip Baltzer and Pauline Walker were married by Reverend N. N. Cowgill on September 1^st.