[5] In the early 1800s, French trader Pierre Denaud established a trading post in the modern-day LaBelle area.

Further, nearly the entire area became submerged with water seasonally; thus, only cattle-grazing was a suitable industry.

Settlement in LaBelle began around 1889 or 1890, after the town was platted by Francis A. Hendry, a cattle rancher, politician, and officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

[7]: 8 Around the beginning of the 20th century, commercial fishermen began building fishing camps along Lake Okeechobee at Sand Point, later renamed Clewiston, though the city was not permanently settled until about 1920.

[10] That same year, the United States government established the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in present-day Hendry County via executive order by President William Howard Taft.

Around that time, the Caloosahatchee Current was established to prove that the area could sustain a newspaper publication.

Goodno, who owned the Everett Hotel, allowed rooms and office space in the building to be used as a temporary courthouse.

[12]: 8 Residents voted by a wide margin in favor of a $530,000 bond issue in November 1924, with $430,000 to be allotted towards improvement of roads and $100,000 for construction of a courthouse.

[9] In mid-1926, a cross-state highway (initially designated as State Road 25, but later renumbered 80) linking Fort Myers to Palm Beach was completed and passed through Hendry County.

Another improvement to transportation occurred when the Seaboard–All Florida Railway started its rail service from LaBelle to Fort Myers in mid-1927.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 39,619 people, 12,878 households, and 9,378 families residing in the county.

The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 34.9% non-Hispanic white, 13.4% black or African American, 1.7% Native American, 0.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.1% non-Hispanic reporting some other race, 2.7% reporting two or more races and 49.2% Hispanic or Latino.

[28] According to the Secretary of State's office, Republicans are a plurality of registered voters in Hendry County.

They enlisted the help of a librarian from the Moore Haven High School to cataloged all the books and then prepared to open the library to the public.

In 1967, the library moved to its permanent location, and in 1992, it was added to through funding from state and federal grants, the City of Clewiston, Hendry County, $100,000 from U.S. Sugar, and $57,510 from private donations.

Florida SouthWestern State College has an outreach program campus in LaBelle.