This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – October 13, 1876

This Week 150 Years Ago in Hickman – October 13, 1876

• Some of the leading ladies and gentlemen of Hickman organized a literary and musical society for “mutual improvement, amusement, and pleasure.” The society planned to meet every Monday night at the residence of John W. Cowgill.
• The Directors of the Fulton County Fair met to discuss relocating the Fair to Moscow, Fulton, or some other convenient place in the county. Poor attendance from the last Fair held in Hickman offered as the reason for the decision to move the fair. Critics proclaimed that the economic conditions of the region were the primary cause for low attendance. “The times are wonderfully hard, money extraordinarily scarce, and the Fair occurred at a time when there was an unusual amount of sickness,” the editor of the Hickman Courier
• The Hickman City Council met on October 10^th and passed a motion that if the wharf master had not returned by the next day, that the Street Committee would proceed to have the work contracted to be completed. The Street Committee Superintendent would supervise the project and the wharf master to manage the laborers. The Council also ordered the City Marshall to inspect and repair the flues in the city, and contracted John Ringwood to begin construction on the levee in West Hickman.
• Fulton County Marshall, Thomas Boaz of Fulton, arrested D. Lytle on October 9^th on charges of horse stealing. He was accused of taking a horse owned by Henry Norman near Fulton Station. He was housed in the county prison in Hickman at the time of publication.
• D. Corbett, a chair manufacturer, was considering the possibility of building a factory in Hickman.
• Gardner & White Mills, of Hickman, won the “premium on flour” during the Fulton County Fair over “several foreign brands.”
• There was “local excitement” as prices for dry goods, clothing and other necessary items were reduced by one-half or one-third. It was reported to be a “harbinger of better times” for the county.
• D. Bush, a resident of Troy, Tennessee, wrote an editorial to his creditors declaring that he lost $1,800 when he resided in Hickman but that he would “pay them every cent” before next March in “solid cash.”
• The Kentucky State Game Law prohibited the killing of partridges until October 29^th.
• It was estimated that “about $10,000” had left Fulton County by visitors attending the Centennial in Eastern cities.
• It was reported that the market price of tobacco was increasing but that the price of cotton was on the decline.
• The hickory and walnut crop in the region promised to be in abundance this fall.
• The Fulton County Court of Claims was in session on October 9^th and 10^th.
• Candidates for Congress A. R. Boone, Democratic, Oscar Turner, Independent Democrat, and Henry Houston, Republican planned to hold a debate in Hickman on October 19th. It was noted by the editor of the Hickman Courier that Houston was an unrepentant “rebel” that served as an officer in the 20^th Mississippi Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.
• C. S. Blackburn, known as Kentucky’s Eagle Orator and Congressman from the Seventh Congressional District of Kentucky, was to address the political issues of the day in Hickman on October 16^th. John Young Brown, Congressman from the Second Congressional District of Kentucky, was “highly probable” to be present and speak if available.
• Oscar Turner, candidate for Congress, was scheduled to address the people of Hickman on October 19^th and Clinton on October 20^th.
• Professor William W. Tice’s, of Mayfield, reputation had “fallen into dispute as a scientist and prognosticator of the weather” as his seasonal weather predictions had not come pass.
• The Marshall County Democratic Party met in Benton on September 23rd to send delegates to the Democratic Convention to be held in Paducah on September 27^th to nominate a candidate for Congress. A “large majority” of the attendees opposed the convention and sending delegates as A. R. Boone and L. S. Trimble were the only candidates. Supporters of Oscar Turner, who refused to attend the convention, removed themselves to the Marshall County Courthouse and formed the Independent Democrats of the First Congressional District.
• The Paducah Herald boasted that a sweet potato weighing 6 pounds was brought to their newspaper office. The editor of the Hickman Courier bragged that a farmer named Fry Steele brought one to him weighing 7 ½ pounds and “six that weigh 25 pounds.”
• Construction had commenced on the Little River and Arkansas Railroad which terminated at New Madrid, Missouri. Businessmen in Hickman suggested that the Northwestern Railroad build an extension to New Madrid via the Tiptonville levee.
• A. G. Quarles died on October 6^th at his residence in Moscow at age 38. He left behind a wife and young son.