First Settlements: Robert Perry of Clayton County, Iowa, the Milford Emigration Company and the colony in Pilot Township, headed by G.W. Banister during the spring and summer of 1856.

First Deed Granted for Land: August 5, 1856 by Robert Perry done at Woodbury County, Iowa.

First House: a log cabin 12 x 20 feet, one and a half stories high, built by the Milford Colony.

First Saw-mill: Built in 1865 by a Mr. Twiford.

First Flour-mill: Operated in the fall of 1870 by Mr. Bliss

First Election: August 1857, at George W. Lebourveau’s log house at Old Cherokee.

First Post Office: Established at the log house of Benjamin Halbrooks in Cherokee Township, autumn 1857.

First Marriage: Carlton Corbett to Miss Rosabella Cummings, November 20, 1859

First White Birth: Ida M. Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Brown, born January 28, 1858.

First Death: Mr. Davis, who froze to death in January of 1857.

First General Store: located within the block-house erected for protection against the Indians 1862-63.

First Fourth of July Celebration: 1858 and was held on Benjamin Halbrook’s land.

First Frame House: erected by G.W.F. Sherwin in 1858 with materials brought from Sioux City by wagon.

First County Fair: 1872

First Democratic County Convention: held in a corn-field in June, 1858. Delegates were Silas Parkhurst, Lemuel Parkhurst, Benjamin Holbrook and Robert Perry.

First Brick House: school house built in 1867. It was blown down in 1881.

First Term of School: 1858, taught by Mrs. Lemuel Parkhurst. The pupils were: Adeline, Luther, John and Henry Phipps; George, Clara and Thomas Brown; William Haynes, Mellen Holbrook and her town three children.

Source:  Biographical History of Cherokee County, W.S. Dunbar & Co., 1889