Mansfield, Minnesota

The township bearing this name is a full congressional town¬ ship, embracing the territory of town 101, range 23. It is the southwestern subdivision of Freeborn county, its contiguous sur- roundings being Alden on the north, Nunda on the east, Faribault county on the west and the state of Iowa on the south. As to the surface and physical features, not much can be said of this that would not readily apply to almost any other prairie town, and this is one in the full sense of the word. The northwestern part of the town is high and rolling, furnishing some of the finest farming land imaginable; but toward the south and east it be¬ comes more level and Ioav. In the extreme southeastern corner a ridge of high land abruptly pushes its way through the surface of the prairie, which inaugurates the area of the tableland, com¬ mencing here and extending eastward through Nunda and other towns. The soil is a dark loam, with a subsoil of sand and gravel, as a rule; but this is not invariable, for in places a marked tendency to a lighter nature is visible with a clay subsoil. Mans¬ field has no lakes within its borders, nor has it any streams of much importance. The largest in the township is Steward's creek, which rises in Alden and, crossing a corner of section 2, passes through the center of sections 1 and 12, forming a minia¬ ture lake in section 1, touches a corner of 13 and leaves the town on its way to Bear lake, in Nunda. Lime creek crosses the south¬ eastern corner of the township. Another small stream rises in sec¬ tion 8 and, flowing northward through section 5, leaves the town and enters Alden. The geological and natural history survey of the county of Freeborn, by N. H. Winchell, state geologist, pub¬ lished in 1875, says of Mansfield : "This town is nearly all prairie, a small patch of oak openings occurring in sections 3, 10 and 15. The northwestern part of the township is rolling, and the south¬ eastern is level and wet with marshes."

Passage source: History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, published 1911.

Mansfield township has one small hamlet, also known as Mans¬ field, situated in the northern part of section 9. There is a cemetery located in the northeastern part of section 16. The United Brethren church and cemetery are located in the southern part of section 7. The German Lutheran church and cemetery are in the northeastern part of section 8. The Swedish Lutheran church and cemetery are in the southern part of section 20. The Norwegian Lutheran church and cemetery are in the southeastern part of section 36.

Passage source: History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, published 1911.

Early Settlement. The earliest steps leading to the founding and subsequent development of this thriving township commenced early in 1856. The first settlers in Mansfield were the Tunell brothers, John and Henry, who came from Illinois by the way of Iowa with their families and with teams, arriving June 23, 1856. and locating on section 8. Here John remained until 1873, when he went to Oregon, while Henry remained on the farm which he originally secured in section 8. These brothers brought with them about one hundred head of cattle, and shortly after their arrival commenced putting up hay, securing enough to carry them safely through the winter ; but a prairie fire destroyed it. For a time the prospect looked dubious, but they finally managed to purchase enough hay from parties in Iowa to tide them over the winter, without a loss of more than half their stock. Shortly after these parties made their appearance Henry Schmidt and Henry Jahnke arrived and secured tracts of the government domain ; Henry Schmidt located on section 10 ; Mr. Jahnke located in section 10. After this there were no arrivals for some time, but gradually the attention of incomers was turned this way and. the government land began to disappear. Messrs. Stenaldson and Kittleson, natives of Norway, came in and located on valuable farms in section 15. Shortly after this H. Knutson, Nels Nelson, and John Kraus Haar arrived and located in the township.

Passage source: History of Freeborn County, Minnesota, published 1911.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Mansfield Township - it names this place 4 more 4 times.