On June 16, 1871, a cyclone, having destroyed the city of El Dorado, touched down in Hickory Township and did damage to the timber.

In the fall of 1873, a prairie fire, originating near El Dorado, driven by a northwest wind swept across the land, driving "coyotes, deer and other wild inhabitants of the prairie scurrying before it, leaping streams as it came to them and leaving desolation in its wake, surging on toward the Indian Territory."

In July 1874, following a prolonged drought, an invasion of millions of grasshoppers began in the eastern part of Kansas and Hickory Township, causing great loss to crops.

A. McGinnis' home, with the first officers chosen: W. S. Dubois, trustee; J. F. Comstock, treasurer; A. F. McGinnis, clerk; Thomas Campbell and W. H. Baxter, justices of the peace; R. Joiner and J. W. Hearne, constables; Z. T. Huston, road overseer.

[5] Hickory Township covers an area of 62.87 square miles (162.8 km2) and contains no incorporated settlements.