THE AGRICULTURAL HERITAGE OF ST. MATTHEWS Writer / Art Lander Jr. Photos courtesy of University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections
by both the Shawnee and Iroquois. Col. James John Floyd, of Virginia, was Jefferson county’s first landowner and early settler.
St. Matthews today has a strong economic base of retail businesses, automobile As deputy surveyor of Fincastle County, dealerships, dining establishments, and Floyd had surveyed the area in 1774 and had healthcare facilities, located around its many his pick of the most geographically desirable neighborhoods and subdivisions. land. He claimed two 1,000 acre parcels in what is now the heart of St. Matthews. But our community’s past is rooted in agriculture, and the roots run deep, dating In November, 1779, he moved his family back to the settlement era. here from Amherst County, Virginia. He built a cabin, and later a fort, called Floyd’s The area south of the Falls of the Ohio River, Station, on what is now Breckinridge Lane. what would become Jefferson County, must Floyd’s Station was one of six stations, have been a paradise in the 18th century. fortified stockades, built on the Middle Fork of Beargrass Creek, which flows There was numerous springs, and local through the center of Jefferson County. streams were rich in fish and mussels. Much of the land was level, soils were By the early 19th century some of the fertile and wildlife was abundant. In the large parcels of land associated with the fall wetlands were filled with migrating six pioneer stations, and other lands waterfowl, and the forested uplands awarded to veterans for their service in supported eastern elk, black bears, wild the Revolutionary War, were developed turkeys, and white-tailed deer. into plantations. The major crops were tobacco, hemp, corn, wheat and livestock, These were prime hunting grounds, claimed primarily horses.
Strategically located about six miles east of downtown Louisville, St. Matthews sits astride an old buffalo trace. By 1820 this pioneer road, that connected the Falls of the Ohio with the seat of state government in Frankfort and the Bluegrass Region beyond, was known as the Shelbyville Turnpike, now US 60. Initial development, known as Gilman’s Point beginning in the 1840s, was around its intersection with Westport Road (Ky 1447). Other important roads converge here too -- Breckinridge Lane, Lexington Road, and Chenoweth Lane. The coming of the railroad, linking Louisville to Frankfort in 1851, and later, an interurban spur line about 1910 that came through St. Matthews, had a big impact on our community. An influx of German and Swiss immigrants in the late 1850s, and later, immigrants from Ireland, brought a change of what was being grown here and how it was being sold, as subsistence gardening evolved into commercial vegetable production. Local
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