Renville County, Minnesota: History
The Minnesota Territory legislature created the county on February 20, 1855. It was named for Joseph Renville, a fur trapper, trader, British officer in the War of 1812, and interlocutor with local Native American groups. Organization of the county's governing structure was completed on November 8, 1866, with Beaver Falls as county seat. Beginning in 1885, citizens in and around Olivia began pressing for the seat to be moved to Olivia, which happened in 1900.
Renville County, located directly across the Minnesota River from the Lower Sioux Agency, was the site of extensive combat during the Dakota War of 1862. The U.S. army's defeats at the Battle of Redwood Ferry and the Battle of Birch Coulee at the hands of the Dakota both occurred in Birch Cooley Township, in addition to numerous Dakota raids on white homesteads in the county. The burned-out Joseph Brown House Ruins still stand, and various monuments throughout the County memorialize settlers killed in the conflict.