CHEROKEE, a new county in the W. N. W. part of Iowa, has an area of 625 square miles. It is intersected by the Little Sioux river, and also drained by two small affluents of that stream, and by a tributary of Floyd's river, which itself flows into the Missouri. This county is not included in the census of 1850. County seat not located. (Baldwin's New and Complete Gazetteer of the United States..., 1854)
CHEROKEE COUNTY Is in the north-western portion of the State, and comprises townships 90, 91, 92 and 93 north of ranges 39, 40, 41 and 42. It is bounded on the north by O'Brien county, on the east by Buena Vista, on the south by Ida and Woodbury, and on the west by Plymouth.
The general surface is quite undulating with the greater portion of timber, on the Little Sioux River which flows through the county from the north-east to the south-west. Mill Creek, which empties into the Sioux, near Cherokee, has also some timber on its banks. The principal varieties of timber are, cottonwood, oak, ash, rockmaple, walnut, linn, hackberry, ironwood, elm and coffeebean.
There are a number of the best of mill sites, on the different streams, although there is at present only one saw mill in operation. Building clay of good quality is abundant.
Cherokee township includes the whole county.
The county was organized at the fall election, in 1857. It was settled in 1856, by Robert Perry, John Moore, Jacob Miller, John T. Lane, James A. Brown, Carlton Corbett, Benjamin Holbrook, B. W. Sawtell, G. W. Banister, Chester Banister, Lemuel Parkhurst and some others. In the spring of 1857, nearly all the settlements were broken up by the Indians. In the fall of 1862, at the time of the Minnesota massacre, all the families but four, left the county. By these means the settlement of the county has been much delayed, but it is hoped that these troubles are now at an end.
CHEROKEE is the county seat, and is situated on the Little Sioux River, 80 miles west of Fort Dodge, and 55 miles east of Sioux City. The land is rolling prairie, and adapted particularly to stock raising. The Little Sioux affords a good water-power at this place. There is here one saw mill. Cherokee has been a military post since the fall of 1861. Population of township, 75. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)