"Kentucky Coal Miners, Jenkins Kentucky" (Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress)
	"Looking Across Upper Pound River, VA from Pound Gap in Pine Mountain" (Kentuckiana Digital Library)
	Blood-Stained Pound Gap Letcher County was visted by both Confederate and Union armies as they passed through the Strategic Pound Gap during the Civil War. Gen. (and later President) James Garfield and his Union troops forced Gen. Humphrey Marshall and the advancing CSA troops to retreat from the area. "General James Garfield" (Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress)
	Letcher County Websites Letcher County, Kentucky - Genealogy Cemeteries of Letcher County, Kentucky Letcher County QuickFacts from the U.S. Census Bureau Letcher County - Mountain Heritage Festival Letcher County Public Library C.B. Caudill Store and History Center Appalshop History of Jenkins, Kentucky
	"Listening Post, Letcher County, Cordon, Kentucky 1930's" (UK Radio Photographic Collection)
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County of the Month: Letcher County, Kentucky

Letcher County was carved from portions of Perry and Harlan counties in 1842. It is named in honor of Kentucky's Governor Robert P. Letcher. The Cumberland, as well as the North Fork of the Kentucky River and Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River have headwaters in the county. At the time of establishment, Stephen Hiram Hogg donated a courthouse site along the headwaters of the North Fork, about 12 miles from the Virginia state line. This area became known as the county seat, Whitesburg.

Whitesburg was Letcher County's only true town until well into the 20th century. Other towns, such as Jenkins, Fleming, McRoberts and Seco were coal towns, constructed by Consolidation, Elkhorn, and South-East coal companies. The expansion of industry in the area brought Eastern European immigrants and Afro-Americans from the Deep South to the area during 1920's. Although the need for fuel during World War II brought jobs and economic stability to the area, the decline in the production of coal caused companies and a large portion of the population to pull out of Letcher County.

Source: Kentucky Encyclopedia
Call number: K 976.9003 Kent

Local legend says that the town of Whitesburg received its name as a joke when some plats were suveyed on a snowy day late in 1842.

The town is actually named after John Daugherty White, Member of Kentucky state legislature; U.S. Representative from Kentucky, 1875-77, 1881-85; and delegate to Republican National Convention from Kentucky, 1880.

"Whitesburg's Mountain Setting"
(C.Frank Dunn Photographic Collection, Kentuckiana Digital Library)

Source: Kentucky Encyclopedia
Political Graveyard: http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/white5.html#R9M0JH90C
Kentucky Files: Counties-Letcher

• County Clerk records
• Agency history
• Administrator’s bonds books (indexed) – 1866-1913 and 1919-1931
• Guardian’s bonds books (indexed) – 1866-1932 and 1941-1954
• Constable bonds book (indexed) – 1916-1952
• Coroner bonds book – 1922-1946
• Jailer bonds book – 1922-1945
• Public official’s bonds books (indexed) – 1866-1942
• Sheriff’s bonds book (indexed) – 1882-1921
• General cross index to deeds – 1844-1940
• General index to deeds – grantee – 1848-1999
• General index to deeds – grantor – 1848-1999
• Deed books – 1844-2000
• Certificates of election book – 1884-1902
• Register of candidates for nomination in primary election – 1912-1939
• Lunatic inquest books – 1919-1964
• General cross index to marriages – 1842-1996
• Marriage books (indexed) – 1870-1999
• Marriage books “colored” (indexed) – 1922-1962
• Marriage registers – 1842-1856 and 1861-1883
• Mineral lease books – 1917-1999
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• Road orders books (indexed) – 1878-1887
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• Quarterly Court records
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• Order books (indexed) – 1904-1919 and 1921-1933