The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1879-07-18
For the Courier.
a HISTORY
Of the Early Settlement OF Fulton
County, Kentucky.

Of the Early Settlements OF FuItOs
County, Kentucky.
NJ. Geo. Worrea According Il
promise, | will give you few sketches
of the Grst settling of this country
| was born IN the io9n Of Hickman
III the year 1925. | was born nakec
and without a cent, aud | have held
my OVID thus far. | am still naked
and hav'nt got cent. ] have escaped
remarkably we'll. | WAS raised here
among the bears, panthers, and wild
cats, and have never been whipped
branded or cropped for stealing. l can
say more than most of peopIe. l was
never on grand or potit jury in my
life, and never iolled around the
court house or broke the sheriff. ribs to
get on one. At my first recollection the
Mississippi river was very. sma I
stream at that d8iig'T5y vssssai bo-s'==s n
nave swan il many time Its distance
at that time, from where the town now
IL, was from half to three quarters Of
a mile, right through the cypress
stumps. There were great many In
dians settled around here a. that time.
The town Of Hickman was called Mills
Point from the fact that man was put
off of produce boa, dead, aud was
buried at that Poiut. his initials were
on shingle at the head og his grave
when we went there lie was buried
under the old Hickman hotel.
will now give you 4 sketch of the
laws we had in this country at that
time. The laws we nov have are run
By 4 great deal more machinery than
hey were; then, instead of haviug
twenty lawyers and fve judges TO try
a case of grand larceny, our courts
consisted Of only one constable and
magistrate anu one or two witnesses, as
the case required. The case wac tried
by magistrate, aud the penalty pro>
uounced By him, and signed by him
and his wife, and than handed 10 the
constable, aud he tied him up 10 O sap
ling and applied the extract of beech
limb, and the spectators, when he was
knawing the bark of the sapling.
would think the ofFense was amply set
lied, when they turned him loose he
broke tor Arkansas or some other un
known territory [ think the whip
ping post would be best yet.
l will tell you how they used to
eicctioueer and the manner ir which
The elections were conducted. We
had no use for any higher officers than
candidates for she Legislature, which
was Sam Z MoFali and Maj Bob
Lewis. Sam always beat him election
eering, and always got the office He
eiectioneered with tho women Instead
Of the men. He would 90 to a house
and pick up little dirty faced young
one and kiss it, aud call it pretty, when
its face was so dirty that it could not
slOse its eyes 10 sleep Then its nam
my would yoke its psppa to vote for
him. He kissed our child and called
it pretty, aud that is the way he OBJ
tanned the Office. Afror IIv iofs sIsS
mother would take the child aud pour
butter milk on its face aud call the
hound pups to lick it off 90 it could 90
to sleep. Hound pups were plenty in
this part of the cou6try, as they were
benefit TO the women as they kept the
pots aud skiilets licked up "a we'll as
churns. dishes, and such like. Every
body kept hounds, for they never Kill
ed sheep-because there vas none here
to kill. On the morning of the elec
tion the candidates would roll out a
half barrel OF whisky and knock the
head in and put gourd 10 it, and they
all knew the meaning of it. It would
only be about two hours before you
would see these eoppcras brooches fel
lows coming up, two on horse, with
their breeches about fifteen inches too
short for their legs. squslIing and yell
ing for Sam j. Then the sheriff would
get up and read the order of the day:
"Oh, yes, gentlemen, the polls is now
open for voting, and at one o'clock the
polls will open for fighting" and any
one who would go to the fighting ring
and watch them bite off fingers aud
ears could imagine how Jennie drawed
the vinegar
l was Informed by one of my neigh
bers, the other day, that Judge King
man was going to canvass the county
pretty soon, and said he was going to
be elected if he had TO kiss every wo-
man aud child in it to obtain the Office
Judge, please don't kiss them, for we
will all vote for you any way, for we
don't want our wives to 60 mad, for we
believe il would result the same as q
case of hydrophobia administered by
a mad dog | will now close. So fare
we'll Nothing more from old d. B. i,
until the next centennial.