The Tyler Family: Blackacre’s first permanent settlers
Edward Tyler III, brother of Moses Tyler. He established his own farm just south of Moses on present Taylorsville Road.
Mrs. Jane Tyler, married to Presley Tyler until his death in 1879.
Moses Tyler was nearly 82 years old when he deeded his homestead, property, farm, animals, and equipment to his son, Presley, in return for food, lodging, care, and “a suitable horse and decent saddle and bridle.”
Ten years later, in 1844, Presley built the two-story brick house now known as the Presley Tyler 1844 Farmhouse. The house was situated on a portion of old Mann’s Lick Road that led to a prominent salt works in southern Jefferson County. By 1879 a new road, called Tucker Station in reference to a nearby railroad stop, replaced the old road as a public right-of-way.
Moses Tyler’s farm was one portion of an original land grant made out to his father, Edward Tyler, by virtue of a treasury warrant Edward had purchased in 1782. The elder Tyler was a merchant who lived and worked in Louisville while two of his older sons and a nephew began developing his land on Chenoweth Run. In about 1788 Edward and his wife Ann sold most of their holdings in Louisville and moved with their youngest son, Edward Tyler III, to the Chenoweth Run property. The farm they established lay just south of Moses Tyler’s farm and today’s Blackacre Nature Preserve.
The Kroeger family at Blackacre, circa 1900
Subsequent Families
Presley Tyler died in 1879 and two years later his farm was purchased by Joseph Sweeney. In 1885 Sweeney sold to John C. Kroeger whose son established a dairy operation at the farm and nurtured fruit orchards near the house. After milking his cows he would rush with the milk to nearby Tucker Station and put them on the train to Louisville. He and his wife raised several children on this farm.
After Kroeger’s death in 1902, local confectionery owner, T. L. Solger, bought the property for use as a summer home. He sold in 1910 to Joseph T. Wheeler who re-established a farming operation that lasted until 1939. In that year William and Elsie Woodward bought the property and was used once again as a summer and guest residence. Elsie took great interest in the old farmhouse and had both plumbing and electricity installed. The Woodward’s called their new residence Land O’Skye, but when friends Judge Macauley and Emilie Smith purchased it in 1950 the Judge renamed it Blackacre.