Did you know that Hickman Mills was actually Hickman’s Mill? When the community around Hickman’s Mill applied for a federal post office, the clerk in Washington accidentally put it down as Hickman Mills. Hickman’s Mill was a steam-powered grist and saw mill that was owned by Edwin Alfred Hickman. Hickman was born in Kentucky in 1819. He left Kentucky in 1840 for Missouri. He first lived and taught school in Independence until he bought the land in Southern Jackson County in 1847. In 1854, he sent the petition to Washington, D.C.