"Elliott county, the 114th in order, was formed in 1869, out of parts of Morgan, Carter, and Lawrence, and named in honor of Judge John M. Elliott.
      It is situated in the north-eastern part of the state, and bounded N. by Carter, E. by Lawrence, S. by Lawrence and Morgan, and W. by Rowan county.
      It is surrounded by high hills on three sides, the waters from which shed outwardly into Big Sandy and Licking rivers, but inwardly into Little Sandy river, forming along its tributaries a succession of moderately rich and very pretty valleys.
      Martinsburg, formerly Sandy Hook, [Note: the current name for the city is  Sandy Hook. cab] the county seat, is 21 miles from Grayson, a railroad point, and 30 miles from Louisa, the head of regular steamboat navigation on the Big Sandy; population in 1870, 62. Newfoundland is 9 miles from
Martinsburg and 16 miles from Grayson.
Elliott county, it is generally understood, was named in honor of Judge John M. Elliott, now (Dec. 1873) a resident of Owingsville, Bath county, and circuit judge of the 13th judicial district. Judge E. is a native of  Scott co., Virginia; was born May 16, 1820; studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1843; practiced with fine success, at Prestonsburg, Floyd
co.; was a representive from Floyd, Pike, and Johnson counties, in the Kentucky legislature, in 1847; a representive in the U. S. congress for six years, 1853-59; again elected representive in the legislature, from Floyd and Johnson counties 1861-63; but an indictment for treason having been found against him, with 31 others (see vol. i, page 97), Nov. 6,
1861, in the U. S. district court at Frankfort, and he (although present from Sept 2 to Oct. 4) not having occupied his seat during the December adjourned session of the legislature, the house, Dec. 21, 1861, expelled  him for being "directly or indirectly connected with, and giving 'aid and comfort' to, the Confederate army, repudiating and acting against the government of the United States and the commonwealth of Kentucky." He had thus actively united his fortunes with the cause of the South; was a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States which assembled at Richmond, Feb. 18, 1862, representing the 9th Ky. district; and a member of each successive Regular Congress of the Confederate  States; representing the 12th Ky. district, up to the time of the downfall of the Confederacy--over three years in all. In 1868, several years after
his return to Kentucky, he was elected, for six years, or until September 1874, circuit judge of the district embracing Bath, Montgomery, Powell, Estill, Owsley, Lee, Wolfe, Morgan, Elliott, and Menifee (10) counties."
      History of Kentucky, Lewis Collins, 1874