History

Beattyville is the county seat of Lee County, which was erected in 1870 out of the counties of Owsley, Estill, Wolfe, and Breathitt, and named Lee after General Robert E. Lee.

Beattyville was Beattyville long before it was the county seat of Lee County, having been incorporated in 1845, and named in honor of Samuel Beatty, a pioneer who died there in 1889. It was originally called Beatty, but the feeling, which characterizes some localities that a town isn't a town until it has "ville" stuck on to its name, prevailed to such an extent that it became Beattyville. And nobody knows just when the change took place.

When the county was plucked out of the sides of its neighbors, Beattyville and its sister town of Proctor, on the opposite side of the river, forthwith entered into a scrapping match as to which should be the capital, and though the first court was held in Proctor, Beattyville hadn't much difficulty in the final capture of the coveted honor. She has retained it since, and Proctor sits silent on the hill beyond and weeps for the glory departed.

But let us not point the finger of scorn at Proctor. When the L & E railway completes its branch down that side of the river, Proctor is going to give a mighty leap into the air and kick its heels high over the hills of Lee in the exuberance of a new birth.

The population of the county is 7,000 and of the town 1,200. That is the claim for the town, and possibly it is slightly in excess though the town limits are copious and 1,200 people don't cover much ground when they are bunched.