Imagine yourself back in the 1850’s, what would life be
like for the early settlers and what would it take to start a church, a school
and establish it in the community? Mankato was just starting to develop.
Picture Main Street as a dirt road with horses and wagons and only a handful of
people. With such a small population you would almost have to be involved in
the development of the city. Look at Mankato today and compare it to its early
beginnings. A lot has changed in the course of 150 years. The downtown area
shows indications of what past generations represented. Much of the old
downtown area has been refurbished do to adaptive reuse. Most of the population
has decentralized to the areas surrounding the city. With this
decentralization, businesses have also relocated to the popular areas. As more
of the city expands, more decentralization will occur. New developments will
cause the older sections to deteriorate. What will become of those areas? That
is the question city planners will have to deal with.
A lot of us take for granted
the lifestyles we have today and conveniences of how modern technology has made
our lives comfortable. Just stop and think of what it would be like to have all
of our conveniences taken away. What would life be like without automobiles or
electricity? What if all our roads and
super highways no longer existed? How many of us would walk from St. Paul to
Mankato? Many of us take it all for granted. We are absolutely helpless when
the power goes out or the car breaks down. It outright disrupts our lifestyle.
I will try to give you some insight of what our past generations endured.
The church of St. Peter and St. Paul’s parish is the oldest of
Catholic parishes in southern Minnesota.[1] In fact the church is the oldest building in
Mankato that is still used for what it was originally intended for.[2]
Even though the early
pioneers were somewhat risk-takers, they wanted to minimize the risk of travel
and unnecessary travel expenses involved in finding the land of their choice.
Anton lig[3],
a man of 20 years, was selected by lot and reimbursed for his travel expenses
to check out the wilderness in Minnesota. His main concern was to find suitable
land for farming.
Anton lig left St. Charles
Mo. for St. Louis Mo. to board a steamer to go north. He became friends with
some other Catholic families, among them were Anton Jakoby and Heinrich Sontag,
who were also making the journey to Minnesota. Upon arriving in St. Paul, Anton
lig went to Mgr Cretin[4],
the first bishop of Minnesota for advice. The bishop advised him to go to St.
Cloud and Mankato. Our scout, Anton lig made the journey to St. Cloud by foot.
The journey took him eight days. The land around St. Cloud was too sandy, so
they made the trip to Mankato. Heinrich Sontag and the Jakobys liked it so well
that they took up residence in Mankato without even thinking of traveling any
further. At this time the city of Mankato consisted of five log cabins
(1854). Mr.Sontag was able to purchase
one of the log cabins at a cheap price. This house was located between Front
and Second Street, near Cherry. The Jakobys took residence with Mr.Sontag until
a later date when they moved out of town and took possession of land for
homesteading. During this time the land around Mankato was still considered
government land.
Anton lig returned to St.
Charles to notify his friends of his findings in Minnesota. They started
preparations to make the journey to Mankato. Unfortunately, Anton was summoned
by his father to return back to Germany and wasn’t able to make the trip. The
company of travelers, which started the trip in the summer of 1854, consisted
of men, women, and children. The number of men at the beginning was at eleven,
but some of them lost courage and the number that made the trip ended up being seven.
So on August 28, 1854; these families with all their belongings boarded the
steamship “Henrietta” for the trip from St Louis to St. Paul. The journey took
48 days due to numerous problems. The water was too low at Keokuk so the
freight and wagons had to be removed and were driven overland to Montrose where
it was reloaded again. The wife of Michael Hund, one of the settlers, died from
cholera in just two days. He suddenly became a widower with three children to
care for. The steamship ran into a rock
at Rock Island and took on water and almost sank. The repairs would take weeks
to make, so our early pioneers covered their wagons with canvas and turned them
into living and sleeping quarters until they could continue on their journey.
Finally the ship was repaired and they were on their way once more. Their
journey would still have some delays. One day about 11 am, in a dense fog, they
collided with another steamboat and again damaged the ship for a few more days
before repairs could be made. Finally they arrived at their destination on
October, 15,1854 only 48 days from when they originally started their trip.
Imagine that! It only took 1-½ months to complete the trip from St.Charles, Mo.
to Mankato. It makes you really appreciate the transportation we have today. It
was these seven who had a major part in the establishment of the parish of St.
Peter and St. Paul.
The first impressions of
Mankato upon our new arrivals were less than encouraging. Some of them,
especially some of the women, would have liked to turn around. The only changes
thus far to Mankato were two new frame houses. One was the “Mankato House” and
the other was a general store. The town was only a clearing in a virgin forest.
The women had to wear scarves when collecting wood because it was almost
impossible to avoid the excrements from all the pigeons roosting in the trees.
The farmers also found these grain-eating pests as expensive nuisances. As the
forest receded, the pigeons also disappeared.
The Sioux Indians had to
move out of the Minnesota Valley in 1851 through a treaty negotiated in 1851 in
Traverse. The Winnebagos came in1855 because a significant portion of Blue
Earth County was designed as their reservation. This brought Indians in close
proximity to Mankato. Soon they engulfed the area. In the words of the old
settlers, there were “15 to 20 Redskins to every white”.[5] The Indians appeared to have a friendly
disposition, but you didn’t want to provoke them. This was their hunting ground
and you didn’t want to do any thing to insult them for fear of them murdering
you or burning down your house. Often times you would see them at a farmers’
door to trade their handicrafts for furs and food.
After our new arrivals had settled into their homesteads and built their new homes they decided to plan for the construction of a new church. A meeting was held at the Kron’s Hotel in 1854 between Christmas and New Years. The first gathering of Catholics presently living in the newly established Mankato banded together and decided to form a parish with a church, a priest, and a school. After several meetings, a decision was made as to where they wanted to build the church. This part of town, which already had been surveyed and had not gone into private ownership, was held by partners of a company known as “The Mankato Claim Company”. The chosen plot on which the Catholics wanted to build their church was located on a parcel shared by one of the partners, P.K. Johnson,[6] one of the founders of Mankato. This man who was benevolent towards Catholics, declared himself willing to donate one half the building site if they would buy the other half. Where would they get the necessary money to purchase the property?
Michael Hund offered to pay out of his own pocket the price asked by Mr. Johnson with one condition that if the growing parish should ever be provided with adequate means, they should pay him back. Both offers were accepted, whereupon P.K. Johnson gave them one half and Michael Hund bought the other half for $200.00. The site they purchased is its present location of Fifth and Sixth Street.
At the time, the parish was very small, consisting of a half a dozen families. How could this handful of people build even a modest church? Once again, Michael Hund came to the rescue. He bought a homestead claim right from Joseph Guenther. This claim was situated on a hill, even today known as “Agency Hill’ because the Winnebago Agency road went over it. On this property was a log house. This house was given to the congregation in the spring of 1855 to be used for church services until the planned church was completed. The building could not be moved until the legally prescribed time was fulfilled so the Homestead law would not be violated. This log cabin given by Michael Hund was the first Catholic Church in Mankato. After the proper time had lapsed, the log cabin was dismantled and moved to the present location and reassembled.
Construction of a new church was to be done shortly. The new church was to be built out of quarry stones. These materials were to be obtained from local quarries in Mankato. The church was to be 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. There were no sawmills in Mankato in 1857 so the beams, shingles, and boards had to be sawn by hand. Progress was slow because they ran out of cash.
Life was enormously expensive because of the poor transportation as there were no railroads in Minnesota and steamboats rarely came to Mankato. Wheat was not harvested and threshed in this area before 1859 because farmers had to clear the forests. A barrel of salt cost $9, one of wheat flour $16 to $18. To cut expenses for the flour to bake bread they bought whole wheat grain and ground it themselves in a coffee mill.[7]
In the time from 1855 to
1856, there was a considerable growth of settlers that joined the new parish.
Construction continued on the church. The exterior of new church was completed
in September 1856. The interior wasn’t completed until the spring of 1857. On
March, 16,1856 the parish obtained their first priest, Valentin Sommereisen.
Mankato, known as the center
of a region conducive to agriculture, was growing rapidly. It was growing so
fast that the newly constructed church was too small to hold all the people who
wanted to attend Sunday Mass. In 1859 the church’s walls were raised to add a
second story and two-story wings were added to the front so the foundation of
the new structure was in the form of the Latin letter “T’. The second story
area was for church services and the lower story was reserved for the school.
The old log house was converted into a rectory.
In the summer of 1862, the
alarm went out that the Indians were coming. The Sioux Indians on the
reservation west of New Ulm, 6000 in all, united themselves for a general war
of annihilation against the whites. They started to fan out in small renegade
bands to spread death and destruction. On August 18, they started on a band of
destruction for many miles destroying fields, burning farms and murdering
defenseless settlers. This was the beginning of one on the most gruesome
catastrophes in the history of our country. Eight days later New Ulm was under
attack. There was fear that Mankato would be next. The residents feared that
the Winnebago Indians might join the Sioux in the attacks. The Sioux had
planned to take New Ulm and Fort Ridgley, unite with the Winnebago, attack St.
Peter and Mankato and destroy all the whites in the entire Minnesota Valley.[8]
Men from Mankato went to New Ulm to fight. They managed to win the battle; all
but four blocks remained of New Ulm and the rest was in ashes. The injured were
transported to Mankato along with the homeless to provide them shelter. Many
farmers abandoned their homes and fled to the city for safety. Finally after
countless battles, General Sibley, who was in charge of all the soldiers in the
war, succeed in defeating the Indians. Many were captured, and 303 of them were
condemned to death for their crimes. The Indians were temporarily kept in the
area of today’s Sibley Park. From there they were moved to a prison, a newly
erected log house in the city on Front and Main Streets. Negotiations with the
government brought about the final decisions of how many and who of the
prisoners should receive the death penalty. On December 7, 1862, President
Abraham Lincoln decided that the number should be 39. Due to lack of evidence, one of the Indians was spared, so 38
Indians were hanged on Friday, December 26 in Mankato. Father Ravoux of St.
Paul baptized 30 [9]of the
Indians.[10]
The names of the executed Indians are shown in the church records at St. Peter
and St.Pauls in Mankato.
Due to the increasing number
in the parish, it was decided to organize a church school. The problem was to
find qualified instructors. Due to low demand, it was difficult to find
instructors. Father Sommereisen went to Milwaukee to the Mother House of the
School Sisters of Notre Dame to try to get some Sisters for the parochial
school, but they had none to spare. In the meantime, the parents sent their
children to a public or a private school that J.B. Wiedenmann had founded. The
school was on Front Street, in a house that later became the property of
Quirinus Leonard, whose descendants still live there. The schoolroom was later
remodeled and served as a store and office. Mostly Germans, both Catholic and
Protestant used the school. There were about 40 to 50 students, and the
instruction was in German and English. The Germans wanted to keep their culture
alive and preserve their native language for their children. It wasn’t until
August 30, 1865, that the Sisters arrived. Thus with the arrival of the
Sisters, the first Catholic school had its start. In 1886 Father Sommereisen’s
house was purchased at a cost of $5000.00 for the Sisters of Notre Dame. He was moved to Yankton, SD.
In the year of 1866, the
parish had again outgrown the church. On August 29, 1869, Father Sommereisen
called an assembly for the formation of a church building committee for a new
church. The new site was to be on the corner of Fifth and Mulberry Streets. In
September of 1869 ground breaking took place for the new church. The foundation
was completed before the cold weather set in. Then the parish became divided on
the cost of the new church. No compromise had been reached when Father
Sommereien[11] took a
personal leave in June of 1870, for a trip to Europe to take care of some
business. He was detained there for about a year before he returned to America.
Father Wirth[12] had taken
his place in the meantime and was to complete the building of the church. They
finally came to a compromise between the two parties. Cheaper materials were to
be used along with lowering the roof by ten feet. That is why the roof was
constructed the way it is. The total cost was not to exceed $45,000. The
cornerstone[13] was laid on
July, 23,1871. The church was not completely finished until the summer of 1873.
The church is built in the gothic style and in the form of a Latin cross. The
building was constructed with gray-yellow bricks. The front measures 67 feet,
the length is 163 feet, and the transept 38 by 90 ft. the height of the steeple
is 132 ft. The church has three altars and is beautifully vaulted inside, with
the middle nave having a height of 37 ft. Seating capacity is 1400 persons.
Hopefully you have developed
a mental picture of Mankato during this era. It was from 1850 to about 1900. As
one can see, the city didn’t offer much for safety in its early beginnings. One
can see how dependent everyone was on each other. Everyone worked together to
obtain a better lifestyle. Religion was an important part of the early
settler’s lives. Education was also an
important issue along with preserving their culture. Most of the settlers were
immigrants and language was a barrier. The settlements of people were those of
a similar language. The problems of language still exist today. You can now see
why cities have groups in different areas of development. The church was built out of stone because it
was abundant and it would withstand the Indian attacks. It was one of the
places the settlers fled for safety when they were under attack from the
Indians. Today the church still remains as a central landmark of the past
history of Mankato. The parish has about 1350 families. The original central
business district still remains, but only a vision of the past. As the
population increased more business opportunities developed and the city
decentralized to the out lying areas. Some of the past history will always
remain. The natural boundaries that determine the shape of Mankato still offer
a scenic view from the bluffs that overlook the city. What the future holds for
the city of Mankato will be up to the city planners and developers.
With permission from by Dennis Dording S01