Mankato Union

Mankato independent (Mankato, Minn.) 1857-1863  Browse the title

Mankato union (Mankato, Minn.) 1863-1879  Browse the title

The Mankato Weekly Independent was the first newspaper published in the city of Mankato. It began publication one year before the community organized the city in 1858. The Mankato weekly Independent, alternately titled Mankato Semi-Weekly Independent, was published weekly and semi-weekly between June 1857 and August 1861. The Mankato Weekly Independent was the fifty-first newspaper that started in Minnesota territory, and the first one to be published in Mankato by the firm Hensely & Gunning. In its five years of being published, the paper often contained seven columns and four pages. Mankato was also served by the Mankato Independent (1861-1863), the Mankato Weekly Union (1863-1864), and the Mankato Union (1864-1879). Located in southern Minnesota, Mankato had been settled by immigrants and often found the townspeople having tension with the natives that were there before them. 

The Mankato Weekly Independent committed itself to being "open to all parties - controlled by none," allowing the newspaper to be "entirely free from party control and party predilections" in their June 6, 1857 issue. Aside from publishing small town announcements about when the mail would come in and when people were expected to meet for town hall meetings, the Mankato Weekly Independent published articles of significant events from the east coast to the west coast and in Minnesota territory. The most notable publication that the Mankato Weekly Independent shared was in the September 12, 1857 publication that shared the Constitution of Minnesota. In a two page spread, the Mankato Weekly Independent published the Constitution of Minnesota in hopes of allowing people to be able to "read and judge for [themselves]." For five issues, the Mankato Weekly Independent had an alternative title starting on August 9, 1860, and ending September 6, 1860. 

The Mankato Independent proceeded from the Mankato Weekly Independent that was a semi-weekly news publication that had three volumes from August 22, 1861 and lasted until July 11, 1863. It maintained the same layout of four pages and seven columns. They held the same values as the Mankato Weekly Independent newspaper in that they had no political identity and their audience stayed the same, appealing to immigrants and farmers in the Mankato and Southern Minnesota Region, while also highlighting tensions with the Native Americans. A significant event that was going on during the time of this publication was the American Civil War. There are stories and letters from generals written all throughout the news publication, thus allowing the people in Mankato to understand what was happening in other parts of the United States. Along with the stories and letters from the generals, the Mankato Independent included obituaries for those who died in the American Civil War, as a way to commemorate and learn about the soldiers who were fighting. Tensions between the Mankato townspeople and Native Americans did not ease. Shortly after the US-Dakota War, Mankato became the site of a mass hanging, hanging thirty-eight Dakota men in December of 1862. 

The Mankato Independent was renamed Mankato Weekly Union in July 1863 and published weekly on Fridays until December 1864. The ownership of the publication was transferred to Charles H. Slocum. The publication maintained the same layout of four pages and seven columns. Due to private businesses not agreeing with the Emancipation Proclamation, the Mankato independent was unable to publish the whole proclamation. They were able to include small portions of the proclamation throughout their publication in 1863. Throughout the publication are many tips on how the townspeople should do things, ranging from how to make butter, the best practices to grow sweet corn, or how to take care of your teeth.  

In late 1864, the Mankato Weekly Union changed title names once again and became known as Mankato Union. The publication maintained the same layout of four pages and seven columns, and published weekly on Fridays. During the time of this publication, the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which prohibited public racial discrimination. Minnesota formed the Minnesota State Association of Baseball Players in 1867, thus inspiring a large league of teams around Mankato. The teams were mostly local doctors and businessmen. In 1869, the rival Record began publishing weekly. The two papers merged in 1880 and became The Mankato Weekly Free Press.