The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1927-06-01
MANKATO BOUGHT
FOR KEC OF PORK
CITY PLANS FOUR-DAY FESTI-
VAL TO COMMEMORATE
FOUNDING BY ST. PAUL TAIL
OR IS YEARS AGO.


OR IS YEARS AGO.
Mankato. the town that the first
tailor in st. Paul bought for small
barrel of pork and some salt from
Chief Sleepy Eye, will celebrate the
18th anniversary of it's founding next
month.
Four days have been set aside for
the celebration, to which every for
mer resident of Mankato will be in
vited to return.
June 10 to % are the days on which
the anniversary celebration, spon-
sored by the Chamber of Commerce
will take place, with the whole city
taking part.
Two performances of a historical
pageant, marking of the site of the
first schoolhouse in Mankato, a mass
meeting addressed by state officials,
an entertaining program by ma
tionally known persons who once
lived in Mankato, are included on the
four day program.
1t was rs years ago in January that
three residents of St Paul started for
the Blue Earth river after the treaty
of Traverse des Sioux to found city,
One of them was Parsons King
Johnson, the first tailor in St. Paul
who bought the land from Chief
Sleepy Eye for barred of pork and
some salt and laid out the site for the
city.
The site ON which Nankato stands
is rich in historical interest. Indian
mounds showed that sarzges dweh
there 500 years ago, burning, glazing
and decorating pottery, weaving cloth
and raising corn. 1t Was I'M a70o that
Pierre C. LeSueur with IL soldiers, IL
miners, a ships carpenter, and three
| or four woodsmen reached the mouth
of the Blue Earth river. There Fort
LeHuillier was built by the French
men.
Mankato's first regular minister
came all the way from Wabash, Ind,
on horseback, in 1854, to open his
church there, the first Scandinavians,
led by Rev. John Tidland and John
Randall, arrived in 1858; a German!
colony from st. Charles, Mo-, arrived
in covered wagon the same year;
two years later Welsh colony from
Wisconsin swelled the population.
All these things and many more
which tell of Mankato's development
from pioneer settlement to one of
the leading towns of the state, will be
- - L. -
wide celebration.
June 10 will be church day with
church and family reunions. Former
pastors and parishioners of Mankat0
churches will be invited to return.
/ June 20 will be given over to class
and lodge reunions. In the Armory in
the evening, program of entertain
ment and speeches by former Man.
kato residents, will be given. Flor
ence Macbeth, internationally fam
Gus soprano, is expected to sing at
this program. She is former Man.
kato resident.
June 81 will be Territorial Pioneers
and Old Settlers day. A meeting will
be conducted in Sibley Memorial park
established at the confluence of the
Blue Earth and Minnesota rivers.
That evening the first performance of
the Historical pageant in which 200
MaakAtO residents will take part will
be- given
Wednesday will be historical day.
Addresses On the history of the town
win be given The Daughters of the
American Revolution viii unveil a
marker on the site of the first school
house. The pageant viii be repeated
in the evening.
Speakers at the various meetings
during the celebration will be Chief
Justice Samuel Wilson, former gov
ernor Adolph Eberhart. former gov
ernor Samuel R. Van SAINT, Frank
Clague, congressman from the second
district, and others.