Mankato's First School

During the summer of 1853, Miss Sara Jane Hanna, daughter of James Hanna of Ohio, began Mankato's first two schools. One was a Sunday School. The other was a "public book-learning classroom". The first class consisted of about 24 children and was held in a rough board warehouse at the end of Walnut Street. Miss Hanna was paid by subscription (each family paid her).

Incoming steamers were stripped of packing cases and loose lumber so that desks and chairs could be constructed. Slate from the nearby river banks was used for writing. These children, some of whom were as old as 19, learned primarily how to read and write. Miss Hanna brought a few textbooks with her from Ohio and a few were shipped from St. Paul by boat. There were almost no textbooks on geography or history and so few attempts were made to educate the children in these subjects.

Classes were held mostly in the winter when the children were not needed to harvest crops or hunt game.

The next school was held by Miss Mary Ann Thomson during 1854 and 1855. The school was attended by apporoximatly 30 scholars, who also paid their teacher by subscription.

It was necessary to hold school in this manner as there were not yet enough tax payers in Mankato to support a public school. For example, in the year of 1854 the taxable property of Mankato brought in an income of only $2,883.00 paid by 20 families.

Source: Mankato Centennial, The City's Schools.

Elementary Schools

The First Public School

In 1855, the first public school was organized and the citizens elected three trustees. John S. Hinckley gave the city land for the school and a one-room log schoolhouse was built. When this stucture was finished, only $70 remained in the treasury. The city used this money to hire L. G. M. Fletcher as the first teacher at a salary of $35 a month for two monthes. The school opened with 37 students. By 1858 the number of students was around 97. These students used books of all kinds from schools from Maine to Louisiana. The classes taught ranged from a basic A.B.C.'s class to one in Civil Engineering.

Union School

With an ever increasing amount of students, the city felt the need for a larger school, so in 1867 the old log school was torn down and Union School was built at a cost of $15,000. Union School opened in the fall of 1867 with seven teachers. It was located on the 200 block of North Broad Street. When Union School was torn down in 1919, many interesting things were discovered inside its cornerstone. There were several copies of the Mankato Weekly Record, which became the Mankato Review, and of the Mankato Weekly Review, which became the Free Press. Also included were the names of the trustees of the village in 1867, when the school was constructed, photographs of the community, and a large number of business cards and letterheads. The school was replaced with another school building, also called Union School. Because of declining enrollment, Union School was closed in 1975. The building was used by the Mankato Area Vocational-Technical College until it was sold in 1983. It was converted into an office complex now known as Union Square.

Sources:
Mankato Centennial. The City's Schools.
At the Bend in the River. Vernard E. Lundin. pgs. 61-67. Windsor Publications Inc. 1990.
The Heritage of Blue Earth CountyCurtis Media Corporation, 1990

More Schools Added

The city continued to grow and so did the four more schools. Pleasant Grove elementary school was built at the corner of Byron and Pleasant streets (presently the site of the Lincoln Community Center) in 1871. It opened with seven teachers staffing its eight rooms.

Four years later, in 1875, Franklin grade school opened its doors at the corner of Broad and Lafayette. It had only three rooms. The West Mankato School located at West Sixth and Owatonna (now Roosevelt Elementary School) started classes in 1885. The East Mankato School was opened in 1894 at the request of citizens moving onto Agency Hill, but closed in 1899 when the spring term enrollment dropped to just 15 pupils.

Sources:
Mankato Centennial. The City's Schools.
At the Bend in the River. Vernard E. Lundin. pgs. 61-67. Windsor Publications Inc. 1990.

High Schools

The need for secondary education was very pressing in early Mankato. The high school was first housed in the Union School building and graduated its first class, consisting of nine pupils, in 1876. However, this school was not very strong and most of its pupils dropped out.

In 1891, Mankato High School was erected at the corner of Hickory and South Fifth streets. The original school housed students from grades 8-12 and was on the streetcar line. An additon was built in 1911. The school now housed students from all parts of the city in grades 7 through 12. That same year, the forerunner to Okatanam yearbook was published as a monthly magazine. By 1912, the enrollment was around 330 students. Music and drawing were taught to all classes, and the high school also offered standard classes (reading, writing, mathematics, etc.) as well as manuel training , sewing, cooking, and an industrial department. An agricultural department was added in 1912. in 1914, the school published its first newspaper and had its first summer school classes. Mankato High School burned down on July 14, 1941, the day summer school students were to pick up their report cards. It took all available firefighters 29 hours to get the blaze under control. The rumor that arson was involoved was never fully dispelled. The 680 high school students spent the next few years cramped inside Lincoln Junior High, and the 270 Lincoln Junior High Students went to the Franklin building. World War II was in progress and the students had to wait until 1944, before a new high school was even talked about.

To see a brief history of Mankato Schools published by the school district in 1935, go to Larry's History of Mankato Schools.

Sources:
Mankato Centennial. The City's Schools.
At the Bend in the River. Vernard E. Lundin. pgs. 61-67. Windsor Publications Inc. 1990.
The Heritage of Blue Earth CountyCurtis Media Corporation, 1990

Colleges

Mankato Normal School

In October of 1868, Mankato Normal School opened its doors serving twenty-seven students in its first year of operation. Its primary role was to train teachers for work in rural schools.

In 1868, after weeks of classes, the school moved to semi-permanent quarters in the Shaubut building in downtown Mankato. Mankato Normal School established itself physically when the three-story Old Main was completed in 1870. Only fourteen subjects were taught then, none straying beyond the basic "3 Rs."

George Gage was the first principal, succeeded in 1872 by his assistant, Julia Sears. In 1873 a retired Methodist minister, David John, abruptly replaced Sears amid some controversy about her continuance at the time of the women’s suffrage movement. In 1880, Edward Searing became the school’s first institutional head to be called president. His tenure also brought eighteen years of expansion and curriculum development. During that period, the school began offering courses above the high-school level as well as a five-year instructional program.

Searing was succeeded by Charles Cooper in 1899. During these first few years, a high school diploma was not required for admission.

For a timeline of the Mankato Normal School, click here.

Taken from the "History of Minnesota State University-Mankato" http://mnsu.edu/dept/univops/history/ hosted by Minnesota State University-Mankato

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