Paducah [key], city (1990 pop. 27,256), seat of McCracken co., SW Ky., on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Tennessee River; inc. as a city 1856. It is a tobacco market, a farm trade and livestock shipping point, and a river port. It has railroad shops and boat yards, and there is diversified manufacturing. During the Civil War, Paducah was held for the Union (1861) by Grant, and in 1864, it was the objective of a Confederate raid by Nathan Forrest. The city suffered serious floods in 1884, 1913, and 1937. The American Quilter's Society is headquartered there.
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