Cherokee, the home of the first settlers in Cherokee County, is located in the Little Sioux River Valley. In 1856, the "Milford, Western Emigration Society" of Milford Massachusetts, sent advance agents, Carlton Corbett and Lemuel Parkhurst into northwest Iowa to select a suitable colony site. They met Robert Perry, first resident of Cherokee County. Corbett and John Martin, not a member of the society, proceeded to plot a site, now known as "Old Cherokee", northeast of the present city. The first party of the "Milford Colony" arrived on May 11, 1856 and build the first house, a log structure, known as "Cherokee House".