That pathfinder of the wilderness, Daniel Boone, came through parts of the present county of Breathitt on two different trips into Central Kentucky, old histories reveal.

His visit was followed by Crockett Ritchie of New York City in 1830, who was granted rights to file on vacant land in Eastern Kentucky. Ritchie's grant covered most of the county of Knott and about one-fourth of the county of Breathitt in what is known as the Buckhorn section of the county.

Near the present Noble post office, he built his first cabin in the county in 1831. Here the Ritchies found good rich soil, trees of the forest growing to great dimensions, dense cane brakes and large beds of coal. The abundance of game, both large and small, and streams stocked with fish, the resources of water and Soil smiled their gentle welcome to this city man and his wife who had turned to pioneer life in the wilderness.

Their next door neighbor was 102 miles away. The nearest post office was in Virginia. Mrs. Ritchie wrote to a friend in New York City that they did not see a newspaper for six years. Ritchie was an expert carpenter. He built looms for weaving cloth and, as the county settled, the newcomers made a path to the Ritchie manufacturing plant for looms to weave cloth for clothing the family. The sleights which he made from cane, the most delicate part of the loom, may be seen in the homes of the oldest settlers of the county today.

In 1839, an act of the legislature made Breathitt County, naming it after Governor Breathitt. In July of that year the first session of court was held in a residence on Cane Creek, with Judge J. E. Eave presiding. The grand jury returned nine indictments, seven for adultery and two for bigamy. Members of the grand jury and witnesses were paid 25 cents a day. The jailer received 20 cents a day for boarding the prisoners. The first indictment for murder was returned in 1849, 10 years after the county was formed.

The first session of court was held in Jackson under a tree on what is now the Breathitt High School campus. In 1888, the county court, under Judge W. H. Blanton, ordered a vote on bonding the county for $40,000 to construct a courthouse. The bond issue carried and the present courthouse was completed in 1891. In 1897, a $10,000 front addition was built, making the cost of the present brick courthouse total $50,000.

In 1888, we find the county court going on record as resisting a bill pending before the legislature to cut off a part of Breathitt, Mcgoffin and Perry Counties to form a new county. It was pro- posed that the county seat of the newly-formed county should be established at Spring Fork.

The settlers of the county, mostly from Virginia and North Carolina, believed in education and in 1851 ten public schools were established in ten slab-sided buildings erected by patrons of the school districts. The desks and seats were hewn logs and the flooring was old Mother Earth.

In 1883, the Rev. J. J. Dickey, Methodist missionary, rode 1830 miles in carrying his ministerial and school library by saddle bag into "Bloody Breathitt" to change the religious and educational complexion of this county. He opened a private school in the old courthouse in 1884. This school, starting with two teachers, developed into the present Lees Junior College, which has a large enrollment and is operated by an experienced faculty. The Dickey school was the first high school in the county, but the city high was the first accredited high school.

The present public school system, under the supervision of Mrs. Marie R. Turner, maintains 98 schools, taught by 150 teachers, with a total enrollment of 7,524. In 1930, the relief agency called CWA built the Caney Consolidated School out of brick, and since that time, 18 other school buildings of stone or brick have been completed by either the CWA or PWA.

Denominational schools of a high school standing in the county are Highland Institute, Riverside Training School, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Zion and Oakdale Vocational School. These schools have a good local patronage and some of them have students from other states. In 1921, when Fallen Campbell was county superintendent, not a teacher in Breathitt County had attended high school. Today 75 of 150 teachers employed by the county board of education have had college work.

When this county was formed, one of the major problems confronting its organizer was the construction of roads in this mountain-locked section, where the valleys are so surrounded by high mountains that each section is isolated from the other sections. The cost of penetrating these remote sections of the highways with roads was prohibitive, so the early settlers built their cabins on "apologies for roads"-the creek beds. The Cockerels located on Frozen, there Turner on Turner's Creek, and the Bachs on Quicksand, where sup- plies either could be boated in or carried in on mules, using the beds of streams for roads.

The fiscal court in 1888 was elected on a good-road program-they promised the voters to lift the county out of the creek beds to dry land roads. This newly-elected court, headed by County Judge W. H. Blanton, appointed the following commissions to located dry land roads: J.E. Campbell, J.B. Haddix and W.H. Sallee, to locate a road from G.P. Strong's mill to intersect the road near Lost Creek store; Oliver Tharp, Joe Tharp, Jack Combs, to locate a road from the county road at the mouth of Smith's Branch to G.P. Strong's mill; John B. Turner, Levi Hollon and Samuel Hollon, to locate a road from William Turner's place to the head of Canoe; Jack Creech, W.W. Caudill and Alex Creech, to locate a road from Jack Creech's place to the church house on Hunting creek; Mat Bowman, Ira Baker and Arch Crawford, to locate a road from the mouth of Trace Fork on War Creek to the mouth of Trace Fork on Twin Creek; John Haddix, William Spicer and David Russell, to locate a road from Jackson up Stray Branch; A. C. Russell, I.H. Combs and Alfred Roberts, to draft a road from Bud Landrum's mill to intersect with the Lost Creek road near Mill Branch.

In 1929, Highway No.15 was built from Winchester, connecting this section with Wise, Va., In 1932, the CWA placed 1,800 men on road projects, building arterial roads in every section of the county. This program of road construction has been continued under the PWA. In 1935, the first and only strip of concrete highway was laid, reaching from Jackson to Lost Creek. This concrete strip of eight miles was secured by Judge William turner when he was a member of the state highway commission. Modern modes of travel came into there county with the extension of the good roads. In 1842, John Bach Sr. was the proud possessor of the only wagon in the county. It was of his own manufacture, made entirely of wood; no metal, not even a nail, being used in its construction. The four wheels, spokes, fellows and tires were made of young white hickory about three inches in diameter split in two and fastened with wooden pins. This wagon was used mostly to haul corn from the Round Bottom farm to the Bach home near the mouth of Quicksand.

In 1921, G. R. Allen registered the first car, a Ford touring, paying a registration fee of $13.20. This year, 3019 cars and 156 trucks have been registered with county Clerk Cora M. Noble. A state highway has been built up Quicksand, connecting Salyersville with Jackson.

A state highway is under construction connecting Jackson with Booneville. In 1888, the county did not have a modern bridge on any of the roads. About this time, candidates began to advocate the construction of a bridge across the Kentucky river at Jackson. Three sets of candidates were defeated by running for office on the bridge-building program. The voters were afraid of the cost of building the Jackson bridge. The cry of the voter was "let the ferry set 'em across.

J. Wise Higgins, candidate for county judge, and those running with him for the board of magistrates, were silent on the idea for building the bridge, but, after their election, they bonded the county for $17,000 to construct the bridge across the Kentucky river, connecting North and South Jackson. This bridge was completed in 1899 and it was maintained as a toll bridge until the bonds were paid. Later this bridge was torn down and moved to Haddix where it still (1938) is in service across the Kentucky river. The bridge removed was replaced by a larger and better iron bridge in 1908. On our modern highways may be seen iron and concrete bridges second to none in the state.

In 1890, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad entered the county. It was built as far as Elkatawa and later was constructed on into Jackson. This made possible the marketing of lumber. The county was full of virgin timber which was made into lumber and shipped to every state in the union. The Robinson Lumber Company purchased 10,000 acres of land in the Quicksand section of the county, locating a large band sawmill on the Miles Bach farm, which was operated for 17 years.

Quicksand grew from a farm house to a village of 600 during the days of the mill operation, but, when the plant was moved, this young city relapsed to a village of 40 houses.

The lumber company later donated the land to the University of Kentucky and Robinson Experiment Station was established at Quicksand. Coal Mines were opened along the L & N tracks. Miners' camps were constructed on the various hillsides near the openings of the mines. Mountains rich in coal were penetrated and marketable coal was shipped from the county to many states and especially to the lake region. Many of these mines have been worked out and the openings sealed up by the PWA. Others are yet operating the largest of these being the R.T. Davis Coal Company, of Jackson, managed by Hugh Needham.

In 1842, a letter written by J. G. Trimble, merchant at the mouth of Quicksand, stated he had been in the county 21/2 years without seeing a newspaper. The county did not have a postoffice at that time. There was a postoffice in Perry County at Perry Courthouse, 45 miles away; one at Hazel Green in Wolfe County, 42 miles away, and one at licking Station, Magoffin County, near Salyersville, 60 miles away.

The amount of postage was regulated in those days by the distance the letters were sent and the postage was paid by the party receiving the mail. Rates were on letter under 80 miles, 8.34 cents; over 80 miles and under 200 miles, 12.34 cents; between 200 and 400 miles, 18.34 cents, and over 400 miles, 25 cents. Envelopes were unknown and the letters were folded in such a way as to be sealed with a wafer.

The men of this county would gather at the Trimble store monthly and sent a postman to Perry Courthouse for the mail for all of Breathitt County. It required two days to make the trip in favorable weather and in the worst winter months the rider was not sent. The postman took with him a good wad of circulating silver coins, mostly Spanish, to pay the postage at the office. The postman would bring 25 letters (more or less) for the entire county. As late as 1844, when the postage was changed to 5 cents regardless of the distance, less than 100 letters were sent to residents of this county monthly. While the postmaster was on the Star Route, those gathered at the store would celebrate with a dance the speed with which the mail entered Breathitt. On his return, the mail was distributed and a month's supply of groceries were purchased at the Trimble store (the only store) in the county and the population of the county went home to return in another 30 days to dispatch another postman for the county mail.

A minister of Tinkling Springs church in Rockbridge County, Va., states in his diary that he traveled into Breathitt on horseback 413 miles to the mouth of Caney in 1830. They told him a young man with $307 had been sent for the mail and that he had been absent for five days. It later developed that the young postman had picked up his best girl on the horse behind him, rode into Perry Courthouse, secured a license and was married and went into Virginia on a wedding trip. He didn't get the mail, as the $307 was needed for honeymooning.

In 1888, the county had 10 postoffices, all on star routes served weekly. In 1914, the Postoffice Department built the present post office on Broadway. Four star routes go out daily from this office to other parts of the county. The L & N carries mail twice daily each way through the county. The present number of offices in the county is 58. J. S. Hollon, Jackson postmaster, states that 2,000 pieces of mail pass through his office daily.

In 1840, the only church organization of any denomination in the county was a small church of the "Hardshell" Baptists. This building was located on the north side of Quicksand, about 600 yards above its mouth, near the Quicksand ford. It was constructed of logs, covered with boards, with a puncheon floor and fence rails substituted for pews. The Rev. Daniel Duff was the only minister in the county and he came 25 miles on a mule to serve this congregation. The records of this church, now in the possession of Miles Bach of Quicksand, show the first clerk of the church to be Alph Cope, who was followed by Bill Cope, Alph Cash, Bill Bach and Miles Bach, the only living clerk of that organization. The branch emptying into Quicksand near the church was called Meeting House Branch.

Early in the history of the county that matchless cavalier of the hills, Dr. E. O. Guerrant came from Louisville and established missionary stations at Elkatawa, Canoe, Shoulderblade, Puncheon, Rousseau, Jackson and Panbowl. The first church in Jackson was the Christian Church, located where John Bay's theater now stands. The Baptist, Christian, Presbyterian, Methodist and German Baptist congregations have churches in the county at present.

In 1888, a Mr.Goff with help from the Rev. J. J. Dickey established the first newspaper in the county, "The Jackson Hustler." This publication was followed by the following publications: Breathitt County News founded by J. Wise Higgins; Jackson Democrat by L. L. Hovermale; Jackson Times by R. C. Music; The Kentuckian (monthly publication) by E. E. Neff. The Jackson Times, edited by Mrs. M. H. Holliday, at present enjoys a good circulation in the county and is the only paper now in existence.

In 1897, the Jackson Hustler had incurred the animosity of certain persons in the county, because it had stood for the founding of the Jackson Academy, the construction of the new courthouse, the annex to it, the bridge across the Kentucky river and anything else that meant progress. Then, too, the editor had been writing strong editorials on the impropriety of residents coming into Jackson and firing their pistols off on all corners of the streets to hear the sound and see the smoke fly. Finally the editor advocated that an ordinance be passed by the authorities to prohibit such conduct. This brought wrath upon his head, so one night, while Editor J. J. Dickey was writing an editorial in the front of the plant, a person or persons went to the rear of the building and blew it up with dynamite. The editor was not hurt.

The three commissioners appointed to locate the county seat, after viewing three sites Jackson, Middle Fork (near the bridge) and Quicksand--decided on the last named place, selecting land of Nick Hays for the building of the town.

They drove four stakes in the old Bach orchard, representing the four corners of the public square. After finding the title to this location was defective, the commissioners changed the site of the county seat to its present location, Jackson, on the land of Simon Cockrell, who donated ten acres to the county.

In 1840 the town site was divided into lots and sold to the highest bidder. The lots ranged in price from $37 to $75. Jerry South bought the highest priced lot, $75, upon which he built a two-story log house which was used as a hotel and called "Our House."

The first merchant to locate in Jackson was Thomas Sewell, of Harlan Courthouse, who purchased two lots west of the Jackson courthouse Square and in 1840 constructed a dwelling and a store house of hewn logs. On Christmas day of that year, his family from Harlan, consisting of his wife, a daughter, Fanny; two sons, William and Benjamin, and two young laboring men, Bill Wright and John Gross, arrived in Jackson on mules. Thomas Frazier was the second merchant to open a store in Jackson.

An influx of settlers started in Jackson in 1890 and today the city has a population of 3,000, while the county has a population of 26,500. In Jackson today may be found three jewelers, 14 restaurants, 24 merchants, two wholesale houses, four garages, three school plants, a telephone exchange, a bank, three hotels, six rooming houses, a tourist home; three doctors, five churches, 15 lawyers, two insurance men, two plumbers, four secret orders, and a Kiwanis Club.