Mankato, the county seat of Jewell county, is located a little to the north of the center of the county on a table land which lies between White Rock creek on the north and the Solomon river on the south, and is at the junction of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific R. R. running east and west and the Missouri Pacific running north and south. It has good banking facilities, graded and high schools, 2 opera houses, 3 weekly newspapers (the Monitor, the Western Advocate and the Republican), express and telegraph offices, and a postoffice with five rural mail route. It is a trading and shipping center for a large and prosperous section of country. The population in 1910 was 1,155.

Mankato was settled in 1872 under the name of Jewell Center, on account of its being centrally located in Jewell county. Earlier than this David Blank had located on the site and opened a blacksmith shop. The land which was platted for the town consisted of 320 acres, a part of which had been preëmpted by Jack Mango in 1870. The officers of the town company were: M. W. Whitney, president; P. S. McCutchen, secretary; G. S. Bishop, treasurer. It was started with the idea of making a county seat town, and accordingly the next year the question of changing the county seat began to be agitated, with the result that in a few weeks a petition was filed for a special election, which was held on May 13. It resulted in favor of Jewell Center and May 17 the county offices were moved from Jewell City and Jewell Center became the county seat. A store had already been built by C. W. Pettigrew and the town company had built a town house, the lower part of which was occupied by a store and the upper part used as a public hall. A combination saw and grist mill was in operation. The postoffice was established in 1872 with D. T. Vance as postmaster.

The similarity of names caused the Jewell Center and Jewell City mails to get mixed, and in 1880 the residents of the former decided to change the name. "Alta" was at first chosen, but when it was found that a postoffice of that name already existed in Kansas it was named Mankato after a town of the same name in Minnesota. It was incorporated as a city of the third class in 1880. The first city officers were: B. J. Thompson, mayor; A. Evans, clerk; L. P. Vance, treasurer; J. W. McRoberts, police judge; M. Stone, C. Angevine, L. M. Butts, S. C. Bowles and C. G. Bishop, councilmen. The first newspaper was the Jewell County Monitor established in 1874.