Richard “Rick” Justice, a teacher in the Sikeston, Missouri public schools and a volunteer at Columbus Belmont State Park, will be the featured speaker at the May 18 meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society. The meeting will be held at the Hickman County Historical and Genealogical Society on the Court Square in Clinton, Kentucky beginning at 10:30 am. Justice’s talk is the third in the JPHS’s 2019 program.  Nathan Bedford Forrest needs no introduction to students of Jackson Purchase history or the history of the Civil War. While aspects of Forrest’s life and career are controversial, few can deny…

On Saturday, January 26th, the Jackson Purchase Historical Society hosted a lecture about Murray native Theodore Roosevelt Mason (T.R.M) Howard  at the Wrather Museum Auditorium on the campus of Murray State University.  The event was the Society’s celebration of the 175th anniversary of the city of Murray’s incorporation. The lecture was a joint presentation, given by David T. Beito, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, and Linda Royster Beito, a professor of social sciences at Stillman College.  Linda Beito began the lecture by documenting Howard’s early life, including his influencers and the relationships he developed in Murray. …