William McCoy, Sr., born at Pleasant in 1873, became a noted local attorney after reading law and being admitted to the bar in 1896. He served as Martin County attorney from 1906 to 1914, was considered an expert on old land patents and deeds of eastern Kentucky, and promoted education as the county's great hope, leading to his appointment by Gov. Flem Sampson as a commissioner on the first State Textbook Commission in 1928. He died in 1950. Lewis Dempsey, born near Warfield in 1852, was a financier and developer of the region who founded Inez Deposit Bank and served as its president for 33 years. He owned vast coal and timber lands that he kept for the county's future development, often loaned money to promising young people for education, helped start many in business, and died here in 1937.