The first settlers in Kandiyohi County arrived in 1856 eager to claim land on the shores of Green Lake and hoping the area would become a thriving new city. Two men from Virginia, A.J. Bell and E.M. Wilson, selected 160 acres there and platted the future town of Irving. To hold this valuable claim, Holden Putnam became Irving's first and only inhabitant during the winter of 1856-57, living in a small shanty once located there. By the spring of 1857 more settlers arrived, construction of the new town began in earnest, and Irving continued to expand over the years. The Irving town site later became the first county seat of former Monongalia County, which merged with its southern neighbor, Kandiyohi, in 1870. Irving was relocated in later years and had ceased to exist by 1920.