The people of Hickman first began receiving Catholic religious services in 1850, when priests of the Carmelite Order, stationed in Paducah, included Hickman in their Western Kentucky missions of Columbus, Mayfield, Fancy Farm, and Fulton. Like many early 19th century congregations, the Catholics had to depend on circuit riding ministers for their spiritual welfare.
    Services were held in the Sherron house on West Main Street (later the corner of Buchanan-Moulton Streets). The Catholics took their first step toward a real church in 1853 when Bishop Martin J. Spalding of the Louisville Diocese bought a lot from C.F. Young on Magnolia Street for $30.50 in cash and a note for $90.50. The bishop planned to build a church there, but for reasons unrecorded, the plans were never carried out.
   Five years later, in ,June, 1858, the bishop paid $200.00 for two lots on Brooklyn Street in West Hickman owned by J.C. Catlett. Members of the church at that time carried the names of Dillion, Sherron, Hartwick, Barry, McDernott, Glaser, Steele, Effinger, Knoerr, Cusick, and Cravens. The predominantly Irish congregation, led by Father Patrick Bambury, decided that the church would be called St. Bridget's.
   Three years passed before the frame church was completed, While it was still under construction, St. Bridget's recorded two firsts: the first marriage between George Matthews and Bertie Dillion on February 21, 1859; and the first baptism of Mary Frances Muller, on January 20, 1860. The church was completed in 1861 at a cost of $1500.00.
    On May 20, 1861, Bishop Spalding left Louisville for a visit to Western Kentucky, during which time he was to inspect the missions and administer the sacraments. His diary records that because of the Civil War hostilities he “had misgivings in going but thought it better to fulfill appointments and trust in God”. Traveling overland, and by steamboat and flatboat upon the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, the Bishop visited fifteen congregations by June 17. St. Bridget's was one of the six new churches he blessed. His diary states that the congregations were “chiefly in a flourishing condition” was due to the efforts of the Carmelites, who were almost all born in Ireland and educated in Italy. Two were Germans and one was Belgian, but a history of the Carmelites says, “They almost became Irish, so closely were they united.” All who served in Western Kentucky had volunteered for the assignment, and their history indicated their mission thrived.

    Then a tragedy struck in the form of yellow fever. Father Brocard Murphy died in 1878, and Father Peter Thomas Meagher, the leader of the mission, in 1880. Father Lucas Legierse and Father John Francis Walsh contracted the fever nursing other victims in Paducah. Both recovered, but they could not carry on by themselves, and their Carmelite seminaries in Ireland and Italy could not replace the many victims of the epidemic. Reluctantly, the two priests left the area in 1881. Disheartened by the end of their missionary work, and weakened by the effects of the fever, both died in 1882. They were replaced by secular (priests not belonging to a religious order) priests from the Louisville Diocese.
   In the latter part of the 19th century, Hickman's Irish Catholics became outnumbered by all influx of Germans with names of Lattus, Mangold, Stahr, Hellner, Werner, and Witting. St. Bridget's became too small and a new church was needed. In July 1890, John and Catherine Witting sold two lots on Moulton Street to Bishop William George McCloskey for $200.00. The name "St. Bridget's" was abandoned and “Sacred Heart” was chosen for the new church name.
    Dedication ceremonies took place on October 5, 1890. Bishop McCloskey and Father William Dunn came from Louisville to conduct services with the pastor, Father Thomas York.

    Both Catholics and Protestants alike attended, for Protestants had helped to raise the $2,300.00 cost of the church. The Advocate, a contemporary Catholic publication, received an enthusiastic report from a Hickman Catholic who reported that Father Dunn's sermon was a “masterpiece of eloquence” and that after the Mass a woman asked to be baptized.
    Sacred Heart's next goal was to build a school. Until one was built, catechism was taught in the Sherron House. Miss Annie Sherron, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, taught generations of Hickman children in Hickman Public School and conducted the catechism lessons in her home.
    Father Fred J. Gettelfinger was pastor when the school opened in 1928. Four Sisters of Mercy from Louisville staffed the school, a single building which the church members had built by remodeling and combining two houses behind the church.
    The nuns lived on the second floor and used the first floor rooms for classes. Ruth Johnson was the first pupil to graduate from the eighth grade.
    The sisters hoped to transport children from Union City and Fulton for classes, but Father Gettelfinger could not arrange it. As a compromise, the nuns accompanied Father Gettelfinger to Union City and Fulton on Sundays, and while he said Mass, they taught religious classes.
    In 1969, a new school building was opened and a high school added to the grade school. The brick building was built with funds left by the Augustus McCary family, Mrs. Catherine Costello Bradley, and parishioners and citizens of Hickman.
    Sacred Heart School served both Catholic and non-catholic children in Hickman, but in the last decade it became  victim to the causes which have closed many schools: declining enrollment, rising costs, and a shortage of teachers, although attempts were made to recruit lay teachers in Hickman. The high school was closed in 1961 and the grade school in 1968. Religious instructions continued in the form of CCD classes with members of the parish alternating as instructors. Summer classes were conducted by Sisters of Mercy from St. John's in Paducah.
    In 1977, the church building was torn down and a new church and rectory were completed under the supervision of Fr. Emmett Zachman. The new church was built on the original site and was formally dedicated on June 17, 1977 with the Most Reverend Henry J. Soenneker, D.D., Bishop of Owensboro, presiding. Father Zachman, a member of the Crosier Order, was responsible for the red Italian marble altar in the new church. The altar was a gift from the Crosier Monastery in Anamia, Minnesota. The stained glass windows, Stations of the Cross, statues, pedestals, and some furniture from the old church were restored and incorporated into the new Sacred Heart Catholic Church.