This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – September 15, 1876

This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – September 15, 1876

• Edmond W. Cole, president of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, stated that the best location for a Western terminus for a permanent trans-Mississippi connection would be at Hickman. He planned to “sink 25 or 30 rock barges” to protect the riverbank and if it proved successful a $50 or $60,000 elevator would be constructed.
• Ten carloads of rock from near Nashville were received on September 13^th for the Hickman City wharf.
• Shippers and businessmen of Hickman complained to the Hickman City Council that wharfage charges would affect local businesses and that steamboats would bypass the city.
• The Hickman City Council met on September 12^th. The West Hickman Levee committee was granted the authority to receive bids for the construction of the levee until September 18^th. The Chairman of the Street Commission was provided funding for repairs and upkeep for city roads and the wharf, and the Wharfmaster supplied his monthly report. He reported $80 was collected and his commission for the month was $16. The City Marshal John W. Cole was paid $30 for one month’s salary.
• The Fulton County Democratic Convention met at the courthouse on September 11^th with every precinct present except Madrid Bend. It would be first time in sixteen years (1860) that a convention was held in the county. Henry A. Tyler, Chairman of the Fulton County Committee called the convention to order, and George B. Prather was appointed Secretary. L. S. Trimble was nominated by W. D. Corbett, H. A. Tyler was nominated by M. B. Shaw (Tyler declined and the nomination was withdrawn), Oscar Turner was nominated by A. H. Scarce, A. R. Boone was nominated by R. S. Murrell, and Ed Crossland was nominated by several others. Ed Crossland was declared first choice. Nominations for second choice were L. S. Trimble, B. G. Bidwell (nominated by H. A. Tyler), Oscar Turner, and A. R. Boone. Bidwell was declared second choice and Trimble third choice. A few dozen delegates were then selected to attend the District Convention in Paducah.
• R. Brown began construction of a “nice residence” on Court House Hill.
• The Fulton County Fair Board met on September 9^th to appoint policemen for the fair. A. J. Whipple was selected as “keeper of stables,” A. H. Leet was selected to manage the amphitheater, and the ticket seller was to be compensated at $2.50 per day.
• Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad agreed to sell half fare tickets to the Fulton County Fair later in the month.
• The Christian congregation planned to hold a service at the Fulton County Courthouse on September 16^th at 10:00 a.m.
• The concert for the benefit of the Methodist Sunday School on September 14^th was “pronounced by those in attendance [as] highly creditable to all.” Miss Belle Fortune’s singing was commended as being “especially excellent.”
• The Tilden and Hendrick flag was raised on September 15^th by the Hickman Tilden and Hendricks Reform Club at the Fulton County Courthouse. Several prominent and distinguished speakers gave speeches.
• William Frenz presented the Hickman Tilden and Hendricks Reform Club a banner with the portraits of both candidates.
• The Democrats of the region scheduled a “Democratic Mass Meeting” in Hickman on October 16^th to be followed by a torchlight procession.
• The Mayfield Monitor reported that Lucian Anderson was “engaged in making a series of inflammatory speeches” in an effort to arouse “long latent and dormant old war feelings.” The Hickman Courier republished a letter from September 2^nd, 1864, accusing Anderson of coercion and extortion of citizens and businesses in the District during the war.
• The Dresden Democrat reported that John Walls was shot and killed by City Marshal John W. Blakemore on September 6^th. Blakemore, a former resident of Hickman, was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the murder by the Weakley County Coroner’s Jury.
• Bowdy Moore and Sallie Perry, both of Hickman, were married in Troy, Tennessee after the Fulton County Clerk would not issue a marriage license in Hickman since Miss Perry was considered underage by State law.
• D. Hughes and Josie Talley, both of Hickman, were married by Reverend J. H. Rouhlhac on September 3^rd at the residence of Samuel Salmon.
• Robert S. Murphy and Anna L. Morris were married on September 7^th at the residence of G. W. Morris in Obion County, Tennessee.
• The infant daughter of Thomas and Ida Plummer, of Hickman, died on September 12^th.
• Robert Dodds, the son of J. H. and Martha Dodds, died near Hickman on September 12^th.