The Mankato Free Press (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
2,144 issues from 1879 to 1923, published in Mankato, Minnesota, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Mankato Free Press began on October 31, 1879 in Mankato, Minnesota. Published weekly, the Free Press originally comprised four pages and nine columns. The first editor / publisher of the Free Press was General James H. Baker, a former Secretary of State for both Ohio and Minnesota and a veteran of the Minnesota Tenth Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Baker was a long-time Republican, and from the beginning used the pages of the Free Press to champion the cause of the Republican Party.
The Free Press was formed when Baker purchased the Mankato Weekly Union and the Mankato Record, consolidating them into one new newspaper. In his introductory remarks in the first issue, Baker made clear his intention for the paper to act as a “local gazette” for the city of Mankato and Blue Earth County. While he would use the paper to promote “the continued ascendancy of the Republican party,” he acknowledged that politics was too often put in front of news of value to the community, writing, “There are husbandry, education, hygiene, things social and things esthetical, a whole world of science, and a long catalogue of wholesome and beautiful things which intertwine with our daily and better lives. These should be distinctively to the front.”
In early 1880, J. Lute Christie, formerly the owner and editor of the Winnebago City Press, bought into the Free Press. While under the editorial control of Baker and Christie, the Free Press became embroiled in a libel lawsuit. On April 2, 1880, the…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Mankato, Minnesota, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress