At the time of Jeffersontown’s incorporation, all of the surrounding acreage was privately owned and being developed mainly as farmland. Jeffersontown became known for onions and strawberries, as well as other produce gleaned from its fertile soil. In 1908, E.R. Sprowl, a Jeffersontown entrepreneur, wrote a promotional booklet urging people to settle in “Jeffersontown, KY, the Coming Suburb!”, which at that time had a whopping population of about 600.
By that time, however, banks had been established in Jeffersontown, and the businessmen of the community were hard at work trying to develop the city in any way possible. Jeffersontown was host to the county’s first newspaper outside the Louisville dailies, The Jeffersonian. And of course, one of Jeffersontown’s most famous residents was a newspaperman himself – the editor of The Courier-Journal, Henry Watterson.
