Storm Lake native Mark Redenbaugh and his wife, Lynn, opened Abner Bell's Coffeehouse in downtown Storm Lake to give area residents the opportunity to sample various coffees from throughout the world.

"Coffeehouses are very big on the coast, and when we wanted to move back to Storm Lake I thought the town was a great place to open this business," says Mark Redenbaugh, who graduated from Storm Lake High School in 1979, went to college in South Carolina and then worked as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service in California, where he met his wife.

Abner Bell was one of the first permanent settlers in Buena Vista County, arriving in 1856 at the site of present-day Sioux Rapids.  Historical accounts describe him as a short man with long black hair and beard, and he was known as a crack shot with his muzzle loader and kept the early settlers supplied with wild game in the nearby Little Sioux River Valley. He died in 1895 and is buried in the Lone Tree Cemetery, just south of Sioux Rapids.

Bell aided in the organization of Buena Vista County and the towns of Sioux Rapids and Linn Grove and held several county offices at various times.