Lake County, named for its beautiful lakes, had been the realm of the Dacotah (Sioux) Indians with few white intruders until the Yankton tribe ceded it in 1858. Noble's Trail crossed its northeast corner in 1857, and that year Mrs. Wm. Marble, a captive of Inkepaduta's renegade Indian band, was rescued at Lake Herman by two Christian Indians. The county was created in 1873 from parts of Brookings, Minnehaha, and Hanson Counties and organized on October 6th with Herman N. Luce and John T. Hare as commissioners. Settlement began in 1870 when Wm. Lee, John Walker, and Herman N. Luce arrived and built the Lee log cabin, its first edifice. Soon Madison, named for Madison, Wis., and Herman, named for Luce, grew up on the shores of Lakes Madison and Herman. By 1880 the population was 2657, and the coming of the railroad that year shifted the county seat from Old Madison to Madison laid out by C. B. Kennedy on July 6th 1880; the first train arrived on January 12, 1881. The Swiss Colony at Badus was founded in 1878, Wentworth in 1880, Winifred in 1882, and Ramona in 1887. Madison State Normal was established in 1881, with classes starting in 1883, and its present name, General Beadle State College, honors its president W.H.H. Beadle (1889-1908), known as the Savior of the School Lands. From 1890 to 1932 the Lake Madison Chautauqua brought culture and entertainment to thousands from a wide area. Moody County was the domain of the Dakota (Sioux) Indians, with a trading post traditionally at the Great Bend as early as 1763, and Joseph LaFramboise in 1822 and Philander Prescott in 1832-33 certainly had posts there. The portion east of the Big Sioux was ceded by the Santee Sioux in 1851 and the part west by the Yankton Sioux in 1858. Its first settlement at Flandreau was established in 1857 but abandoned because of Indian pressure in 1858; it was named for Charles E. Flandrau (1828-1903). Until 1873 its south half was part of Minnehaha and its north half part of Brookings County. Named for Gideon C. Moody (1832 1906), territorial legislator and first U.S. Senator, its first permanent settlers were 25 Christian Santee Sioux Indians who took homesteads in 1869. Among them were Old Flute, All-over-Red, Iron Old Man, the pastor, Iron Dog, and Big Eagle, who were along the river, as were James Jones and L. M. Hewlett, when Eli P. Drake surveyed the county in September 1869. Shortly afterward Charles K. Howard opened a trade store on the Sioux at Flandreau, where the Pettigrew Brothers, surveyors and enterprising pioneers, had the town established by 1872. The county was organized by David Faribault, Harry Stoughton, and Edward Pierce on August 30, 1873, and Flandreau was soon named county seat. By 1880, despite grasshoppers, drought, and blizzards, the county had 3915 people. The railroad reached Flandreau on 1 January 1880. Riggs Institute of 1892 became the Flandreau Indian School, the center of a considerable Indian community whose church building dates back to 1872.