Between 1850 and 1867 fourteen families settled in the area under the auspices of the Peters colony, and in the 1850s twenty-nine families settled on vacant or unclaimed land in the area. At that time the place was known as Pilot Knob or Waintown. Early settlers raised cattle on the open ranges nearby. The first post office in the area was near Pilot Knob, where Emily Wilson was appointed postmistress in 1878. She had the post office in her log cabin, two miles east of the site of future Argyle, where a stagecoach delivered the mail.