# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Buena Vista

​BUENA VISTA COUNTY is located in the third tier from the western boundary of the State and in the third south of the Minnesota line; it contains sixteen congressional townships, making an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. This territory was originally a part of the counties of Dubuque and Buchanan but in 1851 was formed into a county and named to commemorate the Battle of Buena Vista. It was first attached to the county of Wahkaw (now Woodbury) in 1853.
In May, 1856, Abner Bell of New Jersey and his brother-in law, W. K. Weaver and family, and John W. Tucker settled in the northern part of the county near the Little Sioux River at a point called Sioux Rapids. Soon after Arthur T. Reeves, Moses Van Kirk, James H. Gleason and Moses Lewis took claims in the vicinity. In the spring of 1857 the settlers were plundered by a band of Sioux Indians under Inkpadutah while on their way to massacre the colony at Okoboji and Spirit lakes. The men were overpowered by the savages while the women were most brutally treated but no one was killed.
In 1859 the county government was organized by the election of the following officers: A. T. Reeves, judge; W. K. Weaver, treasurer; J. W. Tucker, clerk; and Abner Bell, sheriff. In 1860 the county-seat was located by commissioners in the northwest quarter of section eighteen, township ninety-three, range thirty-six on land belonging to W. S. Lee and the town named Prairieville but no buildings were erected and it never advanced beyond a paper town.
STORM LAKE Buena Vista County
In 1858 a Mr. Barnes laid out the town of Sioux Rapids near the Little Sioux River and, being a man of property, hoped to be able to build up an important place. In 1859 the Sioux Indians were again threatening the frontier settlements and Mr. Barnes sent his son-in-law to Fort Dodge to procure arms for the defense of the settlers. While traveling over the unsettled prairies he was overtaken by a blizzard and so badly frozen that both feet had to be amputated. Mr. Barnes was so disheartened by this calamity that he abandoned his town enterprise and left the country. “Barnes” township and “Barnes Grove” perpetuate his memory. For many years Sioux Rapids was the county-seat. In 1870 the town of Storm Lake was laid out on the north shore of the beautiful lake of that name. The original proprietor was John I. Blair, the builder of the Iowa Falls and Sioux City Railroad, which was the first in the county. The lake is about two miles wide by five miles long, having its outlet in the Boyer River. In October, 1870, Vestal and Young established the Storm Lake Pilot, a weekly newspaper, in the new town. The Little Sioux River runs through the ​north part of the county and in early days its bluffs were covered with timber.
BUNCOMBE COUNTY was established in 1851 and named for an officer in the War of the Revolution. It was the extreme northwestern county in the State. While bearing this name there were no permanent settlers within its limits but for eleven years it appeared on the map of Iowa as Buncombe County until at the extra session of the Ninth General Assembly in September, 1862, it was changed to Lyon.
BUTLER COUNTY is in the third tier south of the Minnesota line, in the fourth west of the Mississippi River, and contains sixteen congressional townships, making an area of five hundred seventy-six square miles. It was taken from territory formerly embraced in the counties of Fayette and Buchanan, was established in 1851 and named for General William O. Butler, an officer in the Mexican War and Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1848.
The first white men who settled in the county were two brothers, Harrison and Volney Carpenter who, in 1850, went from Linn County up the Cedar and Shellrock rivers hunting and trapping. They were charmed with the country and made claims and built a log cabin in a grove where the town of Shellrock stands. In September of the same year Henry J. Hicks and Robert T. Crowell, from Wisconsin, settled at Coon Grove near where Clarksville has since been built. During the winter these pioneers carried on their backs supplies for their families from Cedar Falls. They found support through hunting, trapping and fishing until land could be brought under cultivation. In 1851 Jeremiah Perrin, M. A. Taylor, Mahlon B. and William S. Wamsley, Seth Hilton and others came and also entered land.
In 1853 the county-seat was located at Clarksville, a