Scales donated to Historical Society

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Scales donated to Historical Society | Hickman County Historical Society, Kentucky history,

Recently, Sherry Bryan Daugherty donated to the Hickman County Historical & Genealogical Society this set of scales which belonged to her great great grandfather, John Bugg. He used them in his Bugg's Store which was located on Hwy. 307 north of Fulgham.

Miss Docie Jones of Fulgham wrote in 1940 that Bugg's scales were approximately 75 years old at the time of her writing, dating them to immediately following the Civil War when the shop was opened. According to Miss Docie, they were the first scales Bugg used, and she refers to them as "that old-fashioned kind."

The store building was located across Mt. Pleasant road and just north of where Mrs. Louise McWhorter's house sits today, but it faced east toward what was then called the Fulton and Metropolis Road (No. 307).

Transportation was much different then. Bugg's inventory was brought from Paducah by horses and wagon. A post office was also established in the store in 1887 or 1888, and the postal carrier brought the mail there once a week on horseback.

The Bugg Store continued in business for about 40 years. In 1905, Bugg sold the firm to Mr. J. P. Puckett and Dr. Charles Hunt who closed the establishment's doors for good in 1911.

After Bugg retired, the scales made their way from Bugg to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. W. J. (Lillie M. Allen) Bugg, in whose home Bugg resided until his death, and then to Lillie's granddaughter, Virginia Bugg Bryan, Sherry's mother. And now they are exhibited at the Historical Society