Prepared by Martin E. Nass
Before 1850 the counties in Iowa were created as the settlers came. Boone County was established before 1850 and took care of the needs of the few settler's in the area. The state legislature in 1850 created two new counties north of Boone County. The west county was named Yell, and the neighbor to the east was named Risley, both named for captains in the Spanish-American War.
There were fewer than 12 families in both counties at the time. There were no towns or settlements in the area before 1850. After Henry Lott came in 1847, we find that the Bell family came to settle Bellville. In 1849 one son, Presley Bell, followed the Boone River and became the first person to settle in our county. His grave marker is located in the southwest corner of the Homer Cemetery, but he left the area and moved to Kansas before he died.
Osborne Brannon came in the summer of 1849 and settled near Bell's claim in what is now Webster Township. He was the second settler. In 1850 Wilson Brewer and his brother-in-law, William Stanley, arrived and moved upstream to stay the winter in Hope Hollow, the area just 200 yards north of what we now call Bone's Mill. They stayed until the next year and moved on up to a horseshoe bend in the Boone River to settle in a town that Brewer called Newcastle. Their cabin was later restored by grandson, Frank Bonebright, and is a major addition to the Wilson Brewer Park. The Jackson Groves cabin was moved in from the Briggs Woods area and joined onto it. Thomas Hogan and John Tolman were also arrivals in 1850.
Isaac Hook came to the county and settled just north of present day Stratford in early 1851. He operated a hotel which became a stopping point for new travellers. He planned to call his hotel "Marion House" and create a town named Marion City. One of the first county roads laid out ran from Marion City to Newcastle. The granite road marker was dug up several years ago and is now located in my flower garden. Hook also operated the first tavern in the county. It was the scene of a dispute over a strip of fence between Charles Gatchell and George Smith after drinking in Hook's tavern. As Smith was leaving the tavern he spotted a loaded rifle leaning beside the door. He picked it up and shot Gatchell in the side. Gatchell died about 25 minutes later from the wound. Smith was later arrested by the sheriff, but there was no jail to hold him so he escaped, never to be seen again.
Gatchell was buried in the Hook's Point Cemetery, but some objected to having a murdered man buried there, so he was buried just outside the north fence. In the 1930's Mr. Runkle, editor of the Stanhope Observer, decided to do something about that. Along with help from the Webster County Historical Society, he raised funds and purchased a three-foot-wide strip north of the fence. They then moved the fence, so that today Gatchell is just inside the Hook's Point Cemetery.
Many other settlers were now arriving in Risley County. D. S. Jewett, Jacob Crooks, Ed Leastman, James Brock came in the close of 1851. Benjamin Bell and family settled in the Bell's Mill area in 1852. By this time there were some 50 people living in Risley County. Others arriving in 1852 were W. W. McKinney, E. Russell, Andrew Groseclose, John Whaley, Washington Neese, Dan and John DeVore, P.Johnson, David Eckerson, John Cofer, all of whom settled either in Homer or in Hook's Point.
The settlers in Newcastle were John N. Maxwell, Patrick Frakes, William Funk, and J. R. Payne. This year also saw the opening of a drygoods store in Hook's Point by Hook and David Carroll.One very important settler, Granville Burkley, came to the area in 1851 and taught school. He was a lawyer, trained in the classics, and saw a real opportunity if he could combine Risley and Yell into one big county. The center of the new county would be about where he was living. During the winter he carried a petition to all settlers, about 15 families by this time, asking for the combining of the two counties into one. It was to be called Webster, for the noted national orator, Daniel Webster. The 1852 legislature passed the act, and Burkley was responsible for the location of the county seat at Homer. Thus the names of Risley and Yell were retired.