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Nortonville is about 14 miles south of Madisonville, located at the junction of US 62 and US 41, a 1/4 mile from the Pennyrile Parkway (in the future part of I-69 and 1.2 miles from the Western Kentucky Parkway (proposed I-66).
Nortonville is on the site of a prehistoric Indian village from which many artifacts have been recovered. While widely scattered, some good specimens are preserved in the Museum of the University of Kentucky.
Nortonville was incorporated as the town of Norton during the 1872 General Assembly, being named after Mr. W. E. Norton, a wealthy gentleman who settled here in 1866.
In 1870, Mr. Norton, seeing the growth possibilities of the community with the location of the then St. Louis and Southeastern Railroad construction, running north and south and the Elizabethtown and Paducah Railroad , running east to west, purchased 2,000 acres of land around this junction. Later, Mr. Norton Sold several lots but kept the remaining land.
Norton was later called " Norton Village" and the name was officially changed to Nortonville in the early 1900's.
Growth of the town was slow, however, in it's early history. Soon after the turn of the century it consisted of a post office, one general store, a tobacco warehouse for storing tobacco waiting shipment, a railroad station and freight depot, one church and a few houses. Most of the original buildings have been razed. The first church building was later moved to Barnsley.
About 1902, W. S. Elgin, a tobacconist from Hopkinsville, W. B. Kennedy and Frank Fisher of Paducah and others purchased the 2,000 acres from the Norton heirs and opened a shaft coal mine naming it the Norton Coal Company.
With the opening of the coal mine, the town began to expand and soon a 20 to 25 room hotel was built opposite the railroad station. For several years, the offices of the Norton Coal Company was housed in this building until it was destroyed by fire in about 1925 while being operated by O. N. Beshear and family. At on time, Nortonville boasted about 53 business houses and two doctors, but after reaching its peak the shops and stores declined. However, Nortonville's facilities continued later to improve and to multiply.
It got it's first water system in 1936, whish was a big asset to the community as well water was all that was obtainable prior to this.
The streets were blacktopped in 1956, thus eliminating the dirt, cinder and coal gob streets.
In 1960, natural gas was piped into the town and the chimneys for heating with coal gradually disappeared making the air cleaner and healthier.
About this time, they purchased a pumper fire truck. All they had before this was a hose that hooked to the fire hydrants. Later, they bought another truck and in 1977 they built a new city hall and completed an $80,000 recreational facility. Nortonville also began a $3.5 million sewage system. The lack of a sewage system had kept the city from attracting some industries.
"The Heritage of Hopkins County, Kentucky 1806-1988", Hopkins County Genealogical Society and Historical Society of Hopkins County, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-51171 ISBN 0-938021-67-2
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