Mankato Township was not settled by European Americans until Parsons King Johnson in February 1852, as part of the nineteenth century migration of people from the east across the Midwest. New residents organized the city of Mankato on May 11, 1858.
A popular story says that the city was intended to have been named Mahkato, but a typographical error by a clerk established the name as Mankato.
It was also "the big town" that people from "Little House on the Prairie" series used to go to for shopping.
This frog harness was said to eliminate "near catches", the trouble of hooking different sized frogs in one harness, the frog twisting on the line, and the catching of weeds.
Benson was named after Ben H. Benson, a Norwegian settler to the area. Although a post office was in the area in 1870, it was not incorporated as a town until 1908.