Knott County, Kentucky: History
Knott County was established in 1884 from land given by Breathitt, Floyd, Letcher, and Perry counties. The 1890s-era courthouse, the second to serve the county, burned in 1929.
The first elected county officials were county clerk Lewis Hays (an early settler of The Forks of Troublesome defeating fellow early settler F. P. Allen), county judge David Calhoun, county attorney Fielding Johnson, sheriff Madison Pigman, jailer Isom Slone, and county assessor Hiram Maggard.
The political lines drawn in the early politics of the county were largely along divisions between the early settler families of The Forks, inherited from Civil War differences.
In a later election Anderson Hays ran against Clabe Jones, who had been on opposite sides in the Civil War, with Jones winning the election.
This caused a feud that lasted several years, with fights and deaths in Hindman.
Knott county was one of the counties affected by the 2022 Appalachian floods, and was the county that resulted in the most fatalities.