I created the forums and, thus, the very first account.
I think what happened was that the first version of the forums did not have user numbers - just the user name. So when I upgraded the forum software to a version that had user ID's, numbers were created for everybody.
Later, we were talking about this very thing and Jim tinkered a bit with the account for user number 1. For fun. I'm pretty sure he doesn't use it - he uses account 290.
You can see a rough history of JavaRanch at
http://www.javaranch.com/history.jsp
Kathy took JavaRanch offline sometime around august/september 1999. I'm pretty sure she never saw my
java site until I contacted her in late 99. In October of 2002 she created an account on the forums. By then we had user numbers, so her account number is 37766. She was a prolific poster and really had the touch for cowboy speak. It's too bad she doesn't spend much time here these days.