Putnam County was formed in 1848 from Cabell, Mason, and Kanawha and was named for Gen. Israel Putnam, a Revolutionary War hero. The county is cut by trails made by American bison to the Ohio River, and its oldest town, Buffalo, is named for them. Mason County was formed in 1804 from Kanawha and was named for George Mason. Here Virginia frontiersmen, under Gen. Andrew Lewis, cleared the way for American independence in 1774 by defeating federated western tribes under Chief Cornstalk.