The City of Fordsville sits in the hill country of North Ohio County at the junction of Kentucky highways 54 and 69. It is a sixth-class city with 531 residents per the 2010 census. The community was first settled by the Huff family in the early 1830’s, though one of the first homes was established much earlier by the Mobberley family in 1790. The Mobberley home is still standing.
The Great Depression did not hit Fordsville as hard as many small U. S. cities, as it experienced a significant “Oil Boom” in the 1930s. However, the town’s prosperity began four decades earlier when in 1889 a railroad spur was completed between Owensboro and Fordsville. This allowed coal, timber, tobacco and other freight to be shipped economically, and for 85 cents roundtrip ticket, Fordsville residents could catch one of two daily passenger trains to Owensboro. The 1893 extension to the Illinois Central rail line at Horse Branch, further connected Fordsville to markets across Kentucky and beyond.
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