Obituary Index

Guest Post by Student Worker Noah Kroells

While here at the archives, one of the plethora of tasks that I’ve been given is working on what is known as the Obituary Index. This index is an extensive list of every obituary that’s been printed in the Mankato Free Press. My fellow student workers and I’s role in this process is going through and checking the entries to ensure accuracy.

Throughout this process I’ve found numerous interesting people, such as once I found the founder of Mankato. Parsons King Johnson, He founded the city in 1853 and was in actuality the first settler. He served as the county’s first Register of Deeds and the first Postmaster in Mankato. He even represented the county in the state legislature from 1856-57. He also held the title of justice of the peace for a period of fourteen years.

Another interesting person that I’ve found was Joseph Godfrey, he was an African-American that fought alongside the Dakota in the U.S-Dakota War. Born into slavery he and his mother were sold to Alexis Bailly and he spent most of his childhood in the Bailly household. Once he grew older, he was hired out to Henry H. Sibley, the future first Governor of Minnesota, as an aide. However, he ran away due to bad treatment and joined the Dakota. He would later move with them to the Lower Sioux Agency and even marry a Dakota woman. In August of 1862 he would join the war, though his role and how much he participated is disputed by conflicting accounts. He surrendered with a group of a thousand Dakota and was the first tried by the military commission. He would testify against 11 of the Dakota that were later hung and was able to escape execution. He was then sent to Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa where he served three years of a prison sentence before being pardoned. He left and settled on the Santee Reservation in Nebraska where he lived out the rest of his days. (Francois, Sherick. "Godfrey, Joseph (ca. 1830-1909)." MNopeida, Minnesota Historical Society. http://www.mnopedia.org/person/godfrey-joseph-ca1830-1909 (accessed April 26, 2019).)

Check out the obituary index for your research needs. 

This is just a small sample of the intriguing people that I’ve come across during my searches. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, for any of these people could be described as interesting for whatever reason. For as Ernest Hemingway once said, “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another”.