County Beginnings
Fulton County was created on
January , 1845, the 99th, out of Hickman County. It was
fittingly named for the famous steamboat inventor,
Robert Fulton, “the engineer who helped usher in the era
of the paddle wheelers and turned the river into an even
more important artery of commerce”. (Paducah Sun
article, September 6, 1966, by Bruce Gardner)
Containing 184 square miles, its creation was the result
of efforts to keep the town of Moscow from becoming the
county seat of then Hickman County. Moscow was a
thriving trade center strategically located near the
center of the County. Those wanting to keep Clinton as
county seat teamed with resident in the town of Hickman
and surrounding areas to get their State Representative
to introduce a bill establishing Fulton County. The bill
was enacted with the interesting and unusual provision
that the town of Hickman should be the county seat upon
condition that the sum of $4,000 should be pledged and
secured on or before the month of August following
enactment for the purpose of erecting a courthouse.
(Hickman County Kentucky Pictorial Book) The courthouse
was raised in 1847.
Fulton County contains the “thumb” (called Madrid Bend)
that sticks out into the Mississippi (dividing the
county into two parts) and runs eastward until it ends
at the Graves County boundary. Its southern boundary is
the Tennessee state line and its northern boundary is
part of the Mississippi River and Hickman County.
County
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