J. Proctor Knott, 1830-1911, was born in this county and served in the Missouri Legislature from 1851 to 1859 and as attorney general from 1859 to 1860. He returned here in 1863 and served six terms in the U.S. Congress, becoming famous as a statesman and satirist. He was Governor of Kentucky from 1883 to 1887, and at the 1891 Constitutional Convention he led the effort to keep the capitol at Frankfort. He was the first dean of Centre College Law School from 1894 to 1901, and Knott County was named for him.