A Train to Mt. Washington

The following article by Charles Hartley has been revised and updated from one that originally appeared in The Courier-Journal on 20 June 2012. This version appeared in The Pioneer-News in August 2026, largely based on a presentation made at the Mt. Washington Library on 23 Jul 2026. It is archived here for your reading enjoyment. The General Assembly Act referred to herein may be viewed on another page.

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The notion of a train passing through Mt. Washington began long before there was a single mile of railroad in Kentucky. The earliest notices were mostly to do with a train from Louisville to Bardstown, promoted especially by folks from Bardstown.

As early as April 1832 the Bardstown Herald newspaper was calling for a public meeting to discuss that possibility. But time was not yet right for such a venture.

However, prosperity in Mt. Washington was enhanced in 1837 by the construction of the Louisville and Bardstown Turnpike. A bridge was built across Salt River a few miles south of town. After that, the town became an important stagecoach stop.

An Act to charter the Bardstown and Louisville Railroad Company was approved by the Kentucky General Assembly in March 1850. The commissioners established to do it included prominent men from Louisville, Jefferson County, Bullitt County and Nelson County.

It is interesting to note that of the nine commissioners appointed from Bullitt County six had ties to Shepherdsville including Dr. S. A. McKay, Noah C. Summers, Richard H. Field, Henry F. Kalfus and Charles Quirey, and three to Mt. Washington including William B. Hamilton, Charles Hall and Nat P. Sanders; leaving the question of which route through Bullitt County was anticipated. However, their dreams were premature.

On March 5, 1850 the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company was granted a charter by Kentucky to build and operate a railroad from Louisville to the Tennessee line in the direction of Nashville. But first they had to choose a route.

Several surveys were done, and the railroad decided that either of two routes would be acceptable. One would pass through Elizabethtown and Bowling Green; the other through Bardstown and Glasgow. The decision would be made based on which communities along the way were most willing to raise funds to purchase stock options in the company.

Although Bardstown had been an early advocate for a railroad, two of its leading citizens, Isaac Stone and Ben Hardin were strongly opposed to the bond issue to raise the necessary funds, and it was narrowly defeated.

Meanwhile, Governor John Larue Helm, a native of Elizabethtown and an advocate for the railroad's construction, successfully promoted that city's participation, and the Elizabethtown route would be selected.

Foiled in their attempt to get the main line through Bardstown by way of Mt. Washington, some in Nelson County began lobbying for a branch to be built. In August 1852, The Bardstown Herald printed a petition that recognized the likelihood that the main line was going through Shepherdsville and Elizabethtown, and promoted the construction of such a branch that would lead to Bardstown and on to Springfield. They would get their branch, but Mt. Washington would be left its mostly dirt roads leading four ways from the Crossroads to neighboring towns.

With the main railroad passing through Shepherdsvile, and the branch line to Bardstown, Mt. Washington was left with just the turnpike passing through on its way from Louisville to Bardstown; and the town’s population declined.

Then in March 1890, the General Assembly approved the formation of a corporation of 11 men under the name, "The Louisville Southeastern Railroad Company." This company was to construct and operate a railway line from Louisville, through Jefferson and Bullitt Counties, passing near the town of Mt. Washington, and on to Smithville near the Salt River.

Each of these eleven men had an interest in seeing a track laid southward along Bardstown Road. For most it was a financial interest because they owned land along the way.

The three living the farthest north along the turnpike were George Scoggan, George Long, and Judge William B. Hoke. Scoggan and his brother Hiram Scoggan lived on land bordered by what is now Bardstown Road, Goldsmith Lane and Hikes Lane [A on the map]. George Long's farm was located within the present-day bounds of Watterson Expressway, Newburg Road, Bashford Manor Lane, and Bardstown Road, [B]. And Judge Hoke's farm was located on the southwesterly side of Old Shepherdsville Road near the Louisville Southern railroad track [C].

As a youngster, Judge William B. Hoke attended the Mt. Washington Academy. Later joining the legal profession, he became a county judge for Jefferson County in 1866, a position he maintained at the time of the railroad charter. His farm was located near where the proposed railroad would likely begin, giving him a vested interest in it.

George W. Swearingen, another investor, grew up in Bullitt County before moving to Louisville after the Civil War. He built the Mellwood distillery before becoming the president of the Kentucky Title Company. He never lost his love for his childhood home county, and this may have been the reason he joined in this railroad venture.

Moving south along the turnpike, we come to the homes of the next three promoters. Dr. Thomas A. Hays grew up in the family home at Fairmount which then stood on the west side of what is today Old Bardstown Road, just north of Fairmount Road [D]. His family owned considerable land on both sides of Bardstown Road, giving them reason to join in the proposal.

The Thixton family owned land adjoining Bardstown Road south of Fairmount [E]. Thomas H. Thixton, as the elder member of the family, joined this project in the family's interest.

The remaining three men lived in Bullitt County.

Francis Oliver Carrithers was a director of Peoples Bank of Mt. Washington in its 1890 incorporation. The Carrithers family owned farmland on both sides of Floyd's Fork, with Francis' land lying on both sides of the county line [F]. He was also a long-time Bullitt County magistrate.

The last two men involved in this endeavor were John T. Lux and James Douglas Wright, both of Bullitt County. We will delve a bit deeper into their lives.

John T. Lux's parents were John D. and Rachael (Osborne) Lux who were residing in Bullitt County as early as the 1830 census. John and Rachael were the parents of four daughters before young John's birth. Then about 1841 they were surprised by the arrival of a second son they named Joseph.

Rachael's husband was a respectable person, a veteran of the War of 1812, but not a very successful man. His ventures having failed, he declared bankruptcy in 1842, and died five years later.

We find his family in the 1850 census, perhaps living in Mt. Washington in the house Rachael would purchase from the estate of Rebecca Hall Newkirk in 1853. It was located next to the lot containing the Mt. Washington Academy.

At age 18, John T. Lux was already teaching school, perhaps at the academy next door. This was not unusual, for students with some education were often hired to teach younger children what they knew. A decade later in the 1860 census, it is Joseph who is teaching school, still living with his mother and two sisters; but John had moved west, and was still teaching, but now in Taos County, Territory of New Mexico at a school he had established there.

John married Teresa Bent in September 1860 in Taos. She was the daughter of the late Charles Louis Bent, Governor of the New Mexico Territory, and niece by marriage of Christopher "Kit" Carson. (Yes, that Kit Carson!) Following her father's death in an Indian raid, she lived with the Carson family.

A marriage begun with promise ended in March 1865 when Teresa sued for a divorce. She would marry again and live a long life with her second husband. I've found no indication that John ever married again.

In early 1862 John was one of a group who left New Mexico, traveling to Texas where they enlisted in the Confederate Army. Following the war, it appears that for a time he was in Monterey, Mexico involved as an agent assisting Americans seeking new homes there.

Then in 1868 a Courier-Journal reporter wrote that Lux "stopped at the Louisville Hotel, and when we saw him he was kindly feasting a curious crowd with an exhibition of a lot of Indian 'doings' that he had purchased." Lux was said to have been "the last eleven years engaged in the 'Far West' trading with the Indians" and was on his way to visit his relatives.

From the words and tone of this article, it appears that Lux had developed quite a way of spinning yarns.

However by 1870 John was back in Mt. Washington, living with his mother and his siblings, and clerking in a store. Brother Joseph continued as a teacher, but would soon move to Louisville where he occupied himself as a quite a successful florist.

You will recall that Rachael Lux bought a house and lot from Rebecca Newkirk's heirs in 1853. This was located on the east side of town, lot number 74, located between Main and Water Streets. Then in 1871, her son Joseph purchased the rest of that lot and all of lot 78 from W. W. Hall. By 1877, Joseph was in Louisville when he sold this ground to James T. Cunningham who sold it to Sarah Weeks who sold it to Rachael Lux in January 1879.

By the 1880 census only John, his sister Cynthia and their mother Rachael were living in Mt. Washington. It is interesting to note that John's occupation, if he had one, is not listed.

As Rachael Lux approached the end of her life, she dictated a will in April 1888, leaving everything to John with the understanding that he would see to the needs of his siblings, should they arise. The will was probated in November 1889 following her death.

Perhaps to raise money to invest in this railroad venture, John sold the two Mt. Washington lots to Benjamin Brumley in December 1890 for a thousand dollars.

With the failure of the railroad to materialize, John T. Lux made his way back to Texas. He was 69 when he entered the Confederate Home where he remained for most of the rest of his life.

An finally we come to James Douglas Wright who owned considerable land south of Mt. Washington, particularly in the bottom lands through which the Louisville-Bardstown Turnpike passed.

His family had owned land in this part of Bullitt County dating back to his great-grandfather Elijah Wright who purchased his first Bullitt County property in 1800. By the time of his death, Elijah owned about 300 acres that he willed to his son James who already owned an additional 100 acres that joined Elijah's land.

In the next decade, James Wright, the grandfather, purchased nine lots in Mt. Washington, and for a while operated what was known as the Kentucky Hotel. James and his first wife Fannie had four children including their eldest they named Joseph Hedges Wright. After Fannie died, James moved to Louisville and married Elizabeth Doup Shadburn in 1856.

Then in 1857, James and his son Joseph purchased 350 acres from William Polk that lay mostly in the bottomlands north of Salt River through which Whitaker Run passes, and which was adjacent to the turnpike to Bardstown. Its northeast part lays along Stringer Lane today, with its southern tip along Salt River. The drawing and map below give an idea of its location. After Joseph died, James sold his share of this land jointly to his son James C. Wright and Joseph's widow Ellen.

Joseph and Ellen were the parents of nine children including James Douglas Wright. In the 1870 census record the family was living in Louisville. This record tells us that Joseph was a liquor dealer, and we know he was involved in a distillery operation on the family land in Bullitt County.

James Douglas' sister Lydia would marry Joseph O'Neal, a Louisville lawyer. In a brief biography in a book titled Lawyers & Lawmakers of Kentucky, we read that Lydia's "father is a prominent merchant and distiller, operating the Sugar Valley distillery in Bullitt County." Following Joseph's death, the family leased the distillery lot to Samuel Carrothers.

After Ellen married William Burditt, she deeded her interest in this farm to her children. Then in 1885, in a court case to divide the value of the land amongst them, it was put up for sale, and James Douglas Wright bought it for himself.

Thus when the proposal to establish the rail line from Louisville was made, he was in a prime location to benefit from it since the line would almost certainly pass through what was now his land.

By May 1890 these investors had expanded their plans, and the General Assembly amended their charter, renaming their corporation as "The Louisville, Monticello and Tennessee Railroad Company."

Their plans now were to extend the line from Smithville at the Bullitt County line toward Monticello in Wayne County, and on to the Tennessee line.

Their earlier plans were now dwarfed by these much more ambitious plans from Louisville through Mt. Washington and on to Monticello and beyond. But first they had to get their financing in order, and that proved to be a problem.

Despite their combined wealth and stature in these communities, they needed the financial support of many others, through the sale of stock, to make this railroad a reality. A decade earlier that might have been no problem, but by the beginning of the 1890's a combination of economic factors slowed railroad investment.

Then what is known as the Panic of 1893, followed by one in 1896, created an economic depression second only to the Great Depression of 1930s. Money for investments dried up, and the dream of a railroad to Mt. Washington ended with it.

It would be another quarter-century before significant improvements were made to Bardstown Road down to Mt. Washington; but the trains would never run this way. As you travel down the modern highway into Mt. Washington today, cast your mind's eye back in time and imagine the trains that might have been.

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Copyright 2026 by Charles Hartley, Shepherdsville KY. All rights are reserved. No part of the content of this page may be included in any format in any place without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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