EAST MAIN STREET in downtown Midway is often called Railroad Street by locals because of the town’s history as the first Kentucky town established by a railroad. Railroad tracks split the east- and west-bound lanes of Main Street. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

A HISTORICAL MARKER recounts the history of Midway as the first Kentucky town established by a railroad. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

BRUEN STREET was named for Joseph Bruen, one of many associated with the Lexington & Ohio Railroad, whose names are on 13 street signs in Midway. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

The railroad tracks between the east- and west-bound lanes of Main Street in downtown Midway and a historical marker are reminders of Midway’s past. The streets around town are also a reminder of the railroad town’s beginnings.

According to local historians, 13 streets in the City of Midway were named for officials, stockholders and others associated with the Lexington & Ohio (L & O) Railroad. They were John Brand, Joseph Bruen, Benjamin W. Dudley, Benjamin Gratz, Richard Higgins, Madison C. Johnson, A.O Newton, William Richardson, Thomas Smith, Luther Stephens, Fielding Turner, Elisha Warfield and Elisha Winter.

However, as local railroad historian David Hume wrote in a post on the Midway History Exchange Facebook page, “Most of the stockholders whose names are on the street signs were off the board by 1837 because they had put the railroad in dire financial condition and did not contribute to Midway’s development.”

Elisha Warfield was never involved with Midway other than being a board member and stockholder of the L & O Railroad, according to another Facebook post by Hume. Born in 1781 in Maryland, Warfield and his family moved to Lexington when he was 9. Warfield became the first professor of surgery and obstetrics at Transylvania Medical School and was one of the earliest Thoroughbred owners and breeders in Kentucky. Lexington (a horse with a prolific racing career on the track) was born on Warfield’s Lexington farm.

Another post by Hume on the Midway History Exchange described Benjamin Gratz as “possibly the wealthiest, best educated and most interesting member of the Lexington and Ohio Railroad Board.” Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Philadelphia in 1792, Gratz served in the War of 1812. He lived until he was 94, earned a master’s degree, and was one of a handful of Jewish lawyers in the United States when he was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1817, Hume wrote.

Local historian Eric Petty, who volunteers at the Midway Museum, compiled the information for this article. In an email to the Sun, he wrote, “It’s important to note that even though these individuals have streets named after them, they essentially had little to do with Midway, especially after around 1837. There were other more important individuals to Midway not so honored.”

According to historian Bill Penn’s Midway History Timeline,

The L & O Railroad decided to lay out a town from part of John Francisco’s farm, which the L & O purchased in 1833. Lots were advertised in Lexington’s Kentucky Gazette in 1835.

Incorporated in 1846 by the Kentucky Legislature, according to the Kentucky Historical Society marker near the railroad tracks, Penn wrote that Midway was the first railroad town in Kentucky. It was named Midway because the Woodford County town was located halfway between Lexington and Frankfort.