History

Pike County was formed on December 19, 1821. Before its formation, it had been in succession, a part of Fayette, Bourbon, Mason and Floyd counties. The county was named for General Zebulon M. Pike, a U. S. Army officer and explorer who discovered Pike’s Peak.

The first known permanent settlement in Pike County was made in 1790 at the mouth of Sycamore Creek, on Lower Johns Creek by the family of William Robert Lesley. By 1800 other settlements were being made on the Levisa Fork in the vicinity of what is now Pikeville.

The first session of the county court met on March 4, 1822, at the home of Spenser Adkins on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River. On March 25, a permanent county seat was selected at a site to be called Liberty, about a mile and a half below the mouth of Russell Fork. Opposition by settlers north of the Levisa Fork led to a decision the following year to relocate the seat to Elijah Adkins’ property at Peach Orchard Bottom, across the Levisa Fork from the mouth of Lower Chloe Creek. After the site was surveyed by James Honaker, a town was laid out in the early spring of 1824 and named Pikeville after the county.

From 1863-1891 the Hatfield-McCoy Feud played a huge part in Pike County’s history. The McCoys generally hailed from the Kentucky side of the Tug River and the Hatfields from the West Virginia side.  However, during the feud both families shared space on either side of the Tug.  The feud began with the death of Asa Harmon McCoy on January 7, 1863.  Members of the “Logan Wildcats” despised McCoy because he had joined the Union Army during the Civil War.  Harmon had been discharged from the army early because of a broken leg.  Several nights after he returned home, he was murdered in a nearby cave. After several incidents throughout the years the feud ended in February 1890 when Ellison “Cotton Top” Mounts was hanged for the murder of Allifair McCoy. For more information or a free driving tour brochure of the Hatfield-McCoy feud sites call 606 432-5063 or email tourpikeco@setel.com  (an audio is available for a nominal fee.)

Pike County, located in the heart of the Appalachian coal fields, has been one of the principal coal producing counties in the nation since 1910. Though exploitable coal deposits in nearly every section of the county were known to geologists and others before the Civil War, their large-scale commercial development awaited the coming of the railroads in the first two decades of the twentieth century.

Until rail shipping made coal production practical, Pike County’s timber was its major economic resource. Excessive exploitation depleted this valuable resource, and today the resurgence of the timber industry is years away.

Mining continues to employ the highest portions of the county’s work force. Economic planners see tourism and light industry as Pike County’s hope for the future.