History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/3/Counties/Risley
RISLEY COUNTY was created in 1851 and embraced the territory now constituting the county of Hamilton. It was attached to Polk and afterwards to Boone for election, revenue and judicial purposes. In the same month, by an act of the Legislature, the county of Webster was created embracing the territory of both Risley and Yell counties by which act these two ceased to exist. An act of the same session which took effect before the union of these two counties, changed the name of Risley to Webster, so that for a period of five months and nine days the former county of Risley (now Hamilton) was Webster County. This came from the fact that the act changing the name of Risley to Webster took effect upon publication January 22, 1853, while the act consolidating Yell and Risley did not become a law until the first of July following.