01
The seller and the first families
Kentucky Historical Society marker 2238 identifies Samuel Maddox as the white landowner who began selling small lots to African Americans in 1871. By 1877 seven families lived in Maddoxtown, with residents working at Mount Brilliant and other nearby farms. The marker does not support naming Thomas Maddox as founder.
02
Church, school, and a celebrated horseman
The first church building went up in 1875 and also served as a community school. Land for the present First Baptist Church was bought in 1877. Will Harbut, Man o’ War’s groom, lived in Maddoxtown from the early 1920s until his death on October 3, 1947.
03
Photographs and future research
The Filson preserves a Maddoxtown folder in Carridder Jones’s added photograph collection. Those holdings offer an archival route into community life beyond the marker, subject to the archive’s own identification and permissions.
READ THE EVIDENCE
Sources and further reading
- Kentucky Historical Society marker 2238: Maddoxtown ↗
- Filson Historical Society: Carridder Jones photographs ↗
- Map reference source ↗
Location note: GNIS-derived Mattoxtown/Maddoxtown place-name reference; not a boundary.
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