Jackson is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Breathitt County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 2,231 according to the 2010 U.S. census.It was the home of the Jackson Academy, which became Lees College.HistoryUpon the creation of Breathitt County in 1839, local landowner Simon Cockrell Sr. donated to serve as its seat of government. The community was originally known as Breathitt, Breathitt Town, or Breathitt Court House after the county, but upon its incorporation as a city by the state legislature in 1843, it was renamed Jackson to honor the recently deceased former president Andrew Jackson.Local feuds led the national press to publish stories about Jackson and "Bloody Breathitt": state troops were dispatched twice in the 1870s and again in 1903 after the assassination of U.S. Commissioner James B. Marcum on the courthouse steps to restore order.The Kentucky Union Railroad reached the city in 1891, and Jackson boomed until the L&N continued the line on to Hazard in 1912. A fire on Halloween, 1913, burned down much of the town.
