Kossuth County was founded on January 15, 1851. It was named after Lajos Kossuth, Regent-President of Hungary who went to exile to America following the war of independence of Hungary from the Habsburg Dynasty. The county was enlarged northward in 1857 by the inclusion of the former Bancroft County. Crocker County was another county created out of the same area of Kossuth County as Bancroft County but was reverted due to not being larger than 432 square miles.