The Following Article Is Taken F

The Following Article Is Taken From
The Land Of Lee

The Formation and County Officials
of Lee County, Kentucky
1870-1983

By
Dr. Dennis L. Brewer

This article used by permission of the author

Lee County Formed

For generations, it had been known as the Three Forks . . . that Gibraltar of the Kentucky River Valley where three wild, wayward and wandering sisters completed their mountain meanderings to unite in formation of the Kentucky River.

It was a land of promise and speculation, clad by Mother Nature with choice jewels of coal and timber and blessed by God with an abundance of opportunity for any man who was willing to come and claim his destiny within the Three Forks of the Kentucky.

And, come they did. As early as 1795, settlements had been made at the junction of the North and Middle Forks of the Kentucky as welt as in the Great bend of the Kentucky near the present day location of Old Landing.

Proctor would become the first town to be incorporated in 1848, although settlement of the city on the hill had begun much earlier. In 1843, there were twenty residents of Proctor; and in 1846, Estes Marsh was serving as the community’s Postmaster.

Beattyville, described by a ladies church group in 1900 as a city of “seven hills” was chartered in 1851, although it is generally accepted that settlement of the town, began in 1843. In 1858, Charles D. Blount would begin service as the town s first Postmaster.

Settlers continued the pilgrimage to the land of opportunity within the Three Forks and it was only a matter of time until the General Assembly of Kentucky would be petitioned with the need for the formation of a new county.

The 1869-70 session of the Kentucky General Assembly had busied itself with important affairs of state which included a rejection of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which would guarantee Equal Rights for White and Colored Citizens.

It would be in this session, on January 29, 1870, that the General Assembly of the Commonwealth would determine “That from and after the first day of March, 1870, so much of the counties of Owsley, Estill, Wolfe, and Breathitt as are included in the following boundary, is hereby erected into and established a separate county to be known as the county of Lee.”

John H. Cole, Sr., of Lee County was appointed a Commissioner to “run and plainly mark the boundary line of Lee County had been determined by the legislature along the following lines:

Beginning at the old landing in Estill County, on the Kentucky River; thence a straight line to the mouth of Billy’s Fork of Miller’s Creek; thence with said Billy’s Fork of Miller’s Creek to the road leading from Estill’s Steam Furnace to Campton; thence with said road to the road leading from Beattyville to Campton at Warren’s Cabin; thence a straight line to George Spencer’s, so as to include said Spencer’s farm and residence in the new county; thence a straight line so as to include the farm and residence of Lycurgus Kincaide; thence a straight line to the North Fork of the Kentucky River, at the mouth of Lower Devil’s Creek; thence with said North Fork up to the Breathitt County Line; thence a straight line to the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, at the mouth of Lower Twin Creek; thence a straight line to the top of the dividing ridge between the Middle and South Forks of the Kentucky River; thence with said dividing ridge to the top of the dividing ridge between Papaw and Buffalo Creeks; thence a straight line to the head of the Lick Branch; thence with said Lick Branch, so as to include the residence of Joel Brandenburg, to the mouth; thence a straight line to the South Fork of the Kentucky River, so as to include the farms and residences of Isaac Thomas and James Thom as; thence a straight line to Joseph Reece’s so as to include said Reece’s residence; thence with the mad leading from Proctor to Manchester to Hampton Flannery’s; thence a straight line to the mouth of Wild Dog; thence with the Brushy Mountain to the old James K. Harris house, on the Brushy Mountain; thence a straight line to the Kentucky River, at the mouth of Ross’s Creek; thence with the Kentucky River down to the beginning

On February 12, 1890, the boundary between Lee and Owsley County would be amended by the General Assembly so as to include within Lee County the farms owned and occupied by J. McGuire, Bradley Begley and Jesse Evans.

On April 29, 1890, the Lee-Estill County boundary would be changed so as to include the farms and residences of John W. Lane and Joseph Tipton within Lee County.

The General Assembly appointed John G. McGuire, David Pryse and James B. McGuire as Commissioners to divide the county into six magisterial districts “in each of which shall be elected two justices of the peace and one constable.’ These men were to meet at the Howerton House in Proctor on the second Mon day in March of 1870 to discharge their duties and, after completion of their responsibilities, to “lodge in the hands of R. B. Jameson certified copies of the boundaries of said districts.” Jameson would hold the copies until the election of a Clerk for the County.

An election was set for the first Saturday of April, 1870, with the two McGuires and Pryse to name sheriffs, judges and clerks for each voting precinct.

Thus, a new county was born which would take her place among sister counties of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, containing within her boundaries some 3,055 inhabitants, including 2,954 white and 131 colored. She would be the

115th in formation among Kentucky Counties and contain nearly two hundred square miles of land area.

Beattyville- Proctor Inhabitants at Time of Formation

At the time of the formation of Lee County, Beattyville held a population of 120 which included the following heads of families and their occupations:

Samuel Beatty, Decatur Beatty (a coal merchant), John Beatty (a school teacher), James Beatty (a lawyer), Charles Blount (a physician), George Blount (boatman), James Blount (coal mer chant), Peter Crawford (a farmer), Kenaz Hargis (a lawyer), James Hill (fanner), Franklin Frailey (farmer), William Boling (black smith), Matthias Lewis: Joseph Gale: John G. McGuire (farmer), Henry Newnam, Franklin Phillips (a farmer), Zachariah Phillips; Richard Phillips; Elias and David Pryse (retail merchants), Thomas P Anthony Thomas, Weber Reed (US Assistant Marshall), Thomas Sewell (retail merchant), David Thomas (a retail mer chant), Phelix Thomas, Charles D. Tyler, John Bryant (a farmer), and Zachariah Martin (physician).

Proctor boasted a population of 100 inhabitants which included, in 1870, the following heads of families.

Clifton Beech (shoe and boot maker), Matthew Cook (house carpenter), Henry Dickerson (cabinet maker), Scott Daniel (saw mill worker), William Eve (carpenter), John Hammond (farmer), Wm. Howerton (sawmill worker), Jacob Howerton (retail grocer), Albert Howerton (coal mine worker), Robert Jameson (mer chant), Stephen Pebworth (engineer), Thomas Johnson (farmer), Thomas McGuire (sawmill worker), James B. McGuire (boatman), Philip Hammond (farmer), Richard Lyons (farmer), William Por ter (farmer), Samuel Wilder (farmer), Broad us Twyman (a lawyer), Francis Lutes (a carpenter), Oliver Tyra (farmer).

The County had been divided into six precincts which included Beattyville, Proctor, Old Landing, Coal Branch, Sturgeon and Thomas, with nearly ten per cent of the total population being centered in the Proctor-Beattyville area.

The Name of Lee

The origin of the name Lee as the name of the new political unit has been a matter of controversy for some time. We have been unable to locate any official document which mi shed some “official” light upon why this particular name was chosen. It seems that Richard Collins, in his History of Kentucky, was the first to assert that the county was named in honor of General Robert E. Lee, Commanding General of the Confederate armies.

This would appear somewhat doubtful, considering the strong Union sentiments of those who lived within the boundaries of the county and, that the Civil War had concluded only five years previous to the creation of the county. It is doubtful that the inhabitants who had served a Union cause would be inclined to honor a leader of the rebel forces against which they had fought and at the hands of which some of their relatives had died.

On the other hand, a strong Southern sentiment existed within the state as a whole at this particular time. Democrats had secured 128 of the 138 legislative seats and the General Assembly of 1868 was termed “scarcely more than a meeting of a confederate regiment.” The following General Assembly, which enacted legislation that brought into existence Lee County, also rejected the 15th Amendment in a decisive manner which guaranteed equal rights for white and colored citizens of the United States. This same legislature spent considerable time seeking means to prevent Negro voting within the Commonwealth. It could be that the proponents for the creation of Lee County made use of politics in believing that a pro-Southern Legislature would look with some degree of favor upon the creation of a new political entity that would be named in honor of the South’s greatest War leader.

Another claim that deserves some attention is that which asserts that Lee was named in honor of Lee County, Virginia. Many of the inhabitants of the county had found their origin there, and, perhaps, due to the nostalgic recollections of the past that was, desired to give lasting remembrance to the land of their birth.

The First County Court

Whatever the origin of her name, Lee County existed and the first Court convened at the Howerton House in Proctor on the 25th of April, 1870 in accordance with the act of the General Assembly. Among those who had received appointments to serve as the first county officials were B. F. Phillips as County Judge; William S. Cole as Sheriff; J. M. Beatty as Attorney, and Leander Critzer as Jailor along with additional officers listed elsewhere. Later in that year, J. M. Thomas would become the second sheriff of Lee County.

At the first County Court, J. P. Smallwood, Ira G. Proffitt, E. D. Bailey and W. J. Smallwood were instructed to relinquish all public records in their possession to their successors in Office, namely, Moses Robbards, John Ledford, A. H. Thomas, Decatur Beatty and J. C. Howerton. The Smallwoods, Bailey and Proffitt had been officers of the Owsley County Court previous to the creation of Lee County.

The First Controversy

The General Assembly had, in its act creating the county, declared that “the county seat or seat of justice for Lee County shall be and the same is hereby located at the town of Proctor, on the lot of land denominated the public square of said town of Proctor.”

This clause of the original act would become a matter of controversy almost immediately and on March 10, 1870, the General Assembly would amend its original act ‘for the purpose of settling all dispute and controversy between the citizens of Lee County as to the location of their seat of justice.”

Samuel Salver of Magoffin County, John Wells of Rowan county, Henry Lutes of Rockcastle County, John Bennett of Madison County and Henry Moore and Frank Fitch of Estill County, were appointed as commissioners and charged to meet on the First Monday in April at the house of J. W. Howerton in the town of Proctor. They were to view the various proposed sites and “select some suit able place for the county seat or seat of Justice’ for Lee County.

A summary of what transpired is recorded in the records of the Lee County Court for September, 1870. The Commissioners met at the Howerton House in April of 1870 after viewing the proposed sites for the location of the seat of County Government. Salyers, Lutes and Wells voted to locate the County seat at Proctor. Moore and Bennett voted for the “north side of the river” while Fitch voted to locate the county seat in Beattyville.

The Commissioners were deadlocked in their individual preferences. Mr. Fitch then produced “some instrument of writing” which supposedly required the six commissioners to meet at Campton in Wolfe County on May 16, 1870, in order to take further action on the location of the county seat. At this meeting, the Commissioners still remained deadlocked in their preference and apparently became provoked at Mr. Fitch. Fitch then produced “another instrument of writing in regards to taking the vote.” The five commissioners outvoted Fitch and designated Lot 64 in Proctor as the County Seat of Lee County. The Com missioners met a third time on September 1, 1870, whereupon Fitch moved the County Seat be located in Beattyville. The remaining Commissioners again dissented and an election was set for November to allow the inhabitants to decide the matter.

In early November, W. B. McGuire and J. C. Howerton, made a motion during a meeting of the Fiscal Court that a building committee be appointed to draft a plan for the erection of a court house and jail in the Public Square of the town of Proctor. Those who voted in favor of the motion included: J. C. Howerton, W. B. McGuire, Harden Brandenburg, Moses Robbards, and Charles Lutes. Apparently, the remaining members of the Fiscal Court felt this act to be some what premature and voted against the motion, (Those voting against included: John Ledford, Decatur Beatty, E.R.W. Cox, Addison Smith, Turner Hughes and A. H. Thomas, and in effect defeated the measure.

An old newspaper tells the story of the election which was held to determine the location of the County Seat. The story is that there were three “candidates” for the distinction and included Canaan (flow St. Helens), Beattyville and Proctor. A Poll Taker was appointed to take the sense of the people and he systematically carried the poll book to the homes of the voters and received their preference first hand. According to the newspaper account, J. P. Smallwood and Henry Smith were near the place where the Rocky Hill School once stood and in the process of “hewing out a house pattern.” The Poll Taker, hearing them in the woods as he was returning to Proctor with the results of the poll, entered the woods where Smith and Smallwood were working. The exact number voting
for each of the sites is not known but the story is that Proctor was leading Beattyville by one vote for the distinction of becoming Lee County’s seat of justice.

Henry Smith was a Proctor advocate and felt that the County Seat for Lee County should remain there. Smallwood was a Beattyville man and argued with Smith, pointing out that the bottoms of Beattyville were much better ‘fitted for a town than the hills of Proctor.” It appears, from the newspaper account, that Smallwood’s arguments were so persuasive that Smith relented and had the Poll Taker write Beattyville opposite his name. This tied the vote between the two towns and, when Smallwood voted for Beattyville, “that town had the distinction of becoming Lee County’s seat of government.

The controversy was not over, however, and the County Seat remained in Proctor until February 23, 1871, when County Judge B. F. Phillips ordered Sheriff J. M. Thomas and Clerk K. F. Hargis to “remove all books, papers and records” belonging to the County and Circuit Courts of Lee County from Proctor to the “back room” of the storehouse of Nancy M. Hill in Beattyville. The process was to be completed within ten days.

W. H. Reed and Z. T. Martin, Trustees of the Beattyville School District appear ed before the court at that session and offered an invitation to the court to make use of either the school house or church house for the holding of Circuit and County Court. Nancy M. Hill granted permission, at the same time, for the court to use the “back room” of her “present” storehouse for the Circuit and County Court offices until other offices could be provided.

J. C. Howerton, H. C. Dickinson, W. B. McGuire, and Thomas McGuire, “in their own rights through their attorney” were permitted to enter themselves in opposition to the act of Judge Phillips and agreed to pay for an appeal to the Circuit Court, but the appeal was not to prevent “the removal of the books and papers to the back room of the storehouse.”

On October 20, 1871, Judge J. M. Elliott of the Lee County Circuit Court sustained the action of Judge Phillips and granted the petitioners the right to make an appeal to the Court of Appeals of the Commonwealth. This appeal was evidently rejected by the higher court.

In the meantime, Judge Phillips entered into an agreement with Thomas Pryse to receive land within Beattyville for a Public Square. This land is located on the same site as the current Court house and jail complex of the county.

Legal skirmishes would continue for some time but would end with the same results. - - Beattyville would remain the County Seat of Lee County, Kentucky.

The outcome certainly proved a bitter disappointment to the Pro-Proctor forces. Some twenty years earlier, an attempt had been made to move the County Seat of Owsley County from Booneville to Proctor (then a part of Owsley County).

In 1851 a bill had been introduced into the Kentucky Senate which called for a taking of the sense of the people” in regards to the movement. An election was set for the last Monday of July, 1852. Joseph Scale and Hiram McGuire were to superintend the election at Proctor while Isaac Congleton and Abel Pennington were to superintend the election at Booneville. Isaac Hacker was to act as Sheriff and 0. C. Cole as Clerk for the election to be held at Booneville while John C. Faulcner and M. G. Horton were to act as Sheriff and Clerk of the election at Proctor.

The bill was a short lived one, however, being killed by a parliamentary move which tabled the act and, it was, seemingly, never brought before the body again.

At the time the County seat was moved to Beattyville, it was felt that the move would bring about a great growth of the town. And, perhaps the heart of the total controversy was the matter of accessibility. Those who lived on the ‘south” side of the River were, generally, Proctor advocates while those who lived on the “north” side of the River favored Beattyville. The problem of river crossing when coming to the “county seat” to transact business was a major concern during the entire controversy.

Side Notes

While the controversy surrounding the location of Lee County’s seat of Justice during the early history of the county was a major topic of concern, there were other interesting events also occurring.

At the time of its formation, there were 351 males within Lee County enrolled in the State Militia and, at the first meeting of the County Court, on April 25, 1870, Judge B. F. Phillips bound out as an indentured servant a two year old child named Fanny Townsend. She was placed under the charge of James Durbin until she reached the age of eighteen.

Vacant land in Lee County was valued at five cents to the acre and at least one land owner within the county sold 8000 acres of virgin timber and land for six dollars. And, Circuit Court records are replete with the name of individuals who had been charged with the crime of “Sabbath breaking.”

Perhaps the best indicator of the Lee County that was can be found in the pages of an 1886 edition of the Beattyville Enterprise with 0. H. Pollard and J. F. Sutton as owners. This particular edition recorded the following items of note for the week of March 16 of that year:

Elder J. G. Walker will preach at the Christian Church Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Subject: The duties of the Pastor, Officers and members of the Church. At night: The Bank that never fails.

Sunday afternoon a spring wagon loaded with boys overturned at the foot of the hill in front of Judge Flannery’s residence, dumping its load together with the mule that was in the shafts into the sewer. The wagon was badly disfigured and Clay Brown, one of the passengers, suffered sprains about the shoulders and back.

William Longworth and John Hill engaged in an affray on Hell Creek Monday night. Longworth shot at Hill several times and was arrested and brought to jail Tuesday. Longworth is eighteen years old. Hill says he shot at him twenty times.

The Mouth of Hell Creek was the scene of a disgraceful row Saturday afternoon. A turkey shoot given by Henry Norman and at tended by about twenty men who, after filling themselves with “mean whiskey” engaged in a general battle in which clubs, interspersed with pistols, knives and flying stones, played a prominent part. John White received a broken jaw; Mart Stacey a bruised head; Ed Vanderpool and a pasel of others received bruises and deep wounds of various kinds.

Judge C. B. Hill

Elections within Kentucky have always proven interesting and there is probably no State election that has been more scrutinized than the gubernatorial campaign of 1899 and the events which transpired soon after.

There appeared upon the scene of Kentucky Politics a young Senator by the name of William Goebel who vied for and received the Democratic nomination for Governor in June of 1899. It appears as if the young Goebel had found a strong political ally in the form of Judge James Hargis of Breathitt County who had skillfully maneuvered Circuit Judge David B. Redwine of Breathitt County into the post of Chairman of the Democratic Convention for that year. Controlled by Hargis, Redwine virtually assured the nomination of Goebel for Governor.

After the nomination of Goebel by the Convention, the convention chose remaining candidates rather quickly and, among those who secured a nomination was C. B. Hill for the post of Secretary of State.

Caleb Breckinridge Hill had been born in Lee County on August 11, 1860, the son of William P. and Nancy Hargis Hill. At the age of 22 he succeeded his brother, William P. Hill, as County Clerk of Lee County and twelve years later was elected County Judge. Judge Hill had been born into a powerful political family. His grandfather, John Hargis, had served as Circuit Judge within Breathitt County and as a member of the state legislature and Senate from that district. An uncle, Thomas F. Hargis, had served as Circuit Judge and as Chief Justice of the State Court of Appeals. Another Uncle, James Hargis, would serve as County Judge of Breathitt County and become notorious for his role in the Hargis-Cockrell feud within that county. Yet another Uncle, Kenaz F. Hargis, served as Circuit Clerk of Lee County from the time of its formation until 1874 and again from 1882 to 1886. A brother, Robert C. Hill, would serve as State Representative from Lee County and yet another Brother would precede Judge C. B. Hill as County Clerk for Lee County from 1876-1882.

Prior to his nomination as Secretary of State, Judge Hill had served as Clerk of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1898-1900.

The election of 1899 found the Republicans to be victors in each of the con tested races. Within Lee County W. S. Taylor, the Republican Nominee for Governor outpolled Goebel by a vote of 770 to 588. In the Race for Secretary of State, Lee County rejected the bid of her native son for the office by giving CaIeb Powers, Judge Hill’s Republican opponent a vote of 728 while giving Judge Hill a vote of 596.

The scenario of events which followed the 1899 campaign is well documented. The Republicans assumed office in the state house while the state Democratic party issued charges of voter fraud and sought to overturn the election results. In January of 1900, the State Election Commission, bolstered by a decision by the State Court of Appeals, declared the Democrats to be victors and all Democratic candidates elected to their respective offices. On January 30, 1900, William Goebel was shot as he made his way across the Capitol Grounds on his way to the Senate chambers. As he lay dying, he was sworn into office within his room at the Capital Hotel in Frankfort.

Judge Hill assumed the office of Secretary of State following the decision of the State Elections Commission and the State Court of Appeals and served until the end of his term in 1904. He, along with his family, then removed from the state.

This article used by permission of the author.