Establishment of Breathitt County
Before our county was formed, residents had to travel many miles to reach the nearest county seat. Some had to journey as far as Hazard, Manchester, and Irvine.In 1838, Jeremiah Weldon South formulated a petition to have a new county formed and began circulating it. He traveled many miles on horseback over winding mountain paths and through shallow creek beds to collect signatures on the petition. Eventually, the petition was filed, and the act creating a new county was passed by the legislature on February 9, 1839. This allowed the county to begin functioning as a separate government on April 1, 1839. Through this action, Jeremiah South has become known as the "Father of Breathitt County".
Breathitt County was named in honor of John Breathitt, an early teacher, lawyer and governor of Kentucky. The act provided for the county to have eleven justices of the peace. Their first job was to purchase a town lot for the construction of a courthouse, jail, and other buildings.
The first magistrates of Breathitt County were: Simon Bohanon, Hardin Combs, James Cope, Clayborn Crawford, Alexander Herald, Thomas Hagins, Harmon Hurst, Stephen Jett, Allen Moore, Andrew Pence, and Jeremiah South.
The first meeting was held at the home of William Allen at the mouth of Cane Creek, on the first Monday in April, 1839.
Others individuals who served as first county officials were: Richard South, sheriff; William Allen, coroner; John Hargis, circuit clerk; and Simon Bohanon, county clerk.
Establishment of Jackson
A county seat was established soon after Breathitt became a county. The location for the town was originally chosen at Quicksand, but due to an unclear title to the land, the site was changed to the present location.When the town site was chosen, the area was made up of a large field occupied by one small cabin. As a gift, the owner, Simon Cockrell, donated ten acres in all for the building of the new town.
Soon, an area was provided for the courthouse square, and the remaining ten acres were subdivided into lots and sold to the highest bidders. The lots sold between thirty and seventy-five dollars each.
The buildings which were constructed were dwelling homes, business places, a jail, courthouse, and post office. All were built of hand-hewn logs.
This new community was known for sometime as "Breathitt Town", until 1845 when the State Legislature passed an act changing the name of the town to "Jackson", in memory of General Andrew Jackson.
As part of the same act, town trustees were provided. The first trustees named were: Simon Bohanon, Thomas Hagins, John Hays, Jeremiah W. South and Jesse Spurlock.
First Families of Breathitt County
The following was taken from the 1840 Breathitt County Census, and is a list of the "first families" living in the newly formed county. Spellings of the names are as they appeared in the original early, hand-written copies of the census pages:Akeman, Allen, Back, Baker, Banks, Barnett, Bohannon, Boling, Bowman, Bryant, Bush, Campbell, Carpenter, Cash, Chaney, Childers, Clemons, Cockrell, Combs, Cope, Couch, Craft, Crawford, Dalton, Davidson, Davis, Deaton, Duff, Fields, Frasier, Fugitt, Gabbard, Gambill, Griffith, Gwinn, Haddix, Hagins, Hall, Hargis, Harris, Harvie, Hatton, Hay, Hensley, Herald, Holbrook, Holiday, Holland, Howard, Jett, Johnson, Jones, Joseph, King, Landrum, Lansawy, Little, Mann, Marcum, Marshall, Mays, McDaniel, McIntosh, McQuinn, Miller, Moore, Morris, Mullins, Neice, Noble, Patrick, Pence, Pennington, Pitts, Riley, Roberts, Robertson, Sebastian, Sewell, Shackelford, Smith, South, Southwood, Sparks, Spencer, Spurlock, Spycher, Stacy, Strong, Taulbee, Terry, Tolson, Trusty, Turner, Vires, Wadkins, White, Wilder, Willimas, Wilson.
Last updated: November 14th, 2005 @ 11:53 PM