Sioux Indians and a company of soldiers was stationed there. In 1858 a town was laid out by Adolphus Jenkins, R. E. Ridley and Jesse Coverdale and named Estherville for Esther A. Ridley, the wife of one of the proprietors, who was the pioneer woman of the settlement and the only one during the first winter. R. E. Ridley built the first house in the new town.
The county was organized in February, 1859, and the following officers chosen: Adolphus Jenkins, judge; Jesse Coverdale, clerk; R. E. Ridley, treasurer; and A. H. Ridley, sheriff. The county-seat was located at Estherville by L. H. Smith and O. C. Howe, commissioners, appointed by Judge A. W. Hubbard of Sioux City. The first newspaper was established in 1868 at Estherville by O. C. Bates and Eaton Northrop and named the Northern Vindicator.
FAYETTE COUNTY, as originally established in December, 1837, was the largest county in the United States. It extended to the British Dominions on the north and from the Mississippi River west to the White Earth, thus embracing nearly all of the present State of Minnesota and all of the Dakotas east of the Missouri and White Earth rivers, making a total area of nearly 140,000 square miles. In 1847 the county was reduced to its present boundaries, lying directly west of Clayton and north of Buchanan. It contains twenty townships embracing an area of seven hundred twenty squares miles and was named for the Marquis de Lafayette.
An Indian trader named George Culver was the first white man to build a cabin in the county in the spring of 1841, in Illyria township. In 1842 Andrew Hensley came to Fairfield township where he settled with his family. Other families soon after located in various parts of the county. In 1850 it was organized by the election of the following officers: Thomas Woodle, judge; J. W. Neff, sheriff; J. A. Cook, treasurer, and William Wells, Charles
