Excerpt from The Heritage of Blue Earth County by Julie Schrader, Topic 154, available in the Research & Genealogy Center.

“Arriving in 1854, Robert Patterson and John Goodwin who were brothers-in-law, had been awarded military bounty grants of 274 acres in what later became to be known as Judson bottom. Located 10 miles to the west and somewhat north of Mankato, these good gentlemen’s properties abutted the river, although Goodwin did pre-empt some 21 acres directly bounding the river that were not in his original grant.

“By April 1856, the area’s population had grown to more than 50 men and their families and it was perhaps this relatively rapid growth that prompted Patterson and Goodwin to create such an enthusiastic town plan. Ninety-seven blocks between six and fourteen lots of 50×150 feet dimensions on each was planned. Streets seventy feet wide and alleys twenty feet wide and a centrally located town square were envisioned. A public landing on the river at the midpoint of the town and a steamboat landing upriver completed the picture. The town was named Judson after Adoniram Judson, a Baptist missionary to Burma who translated the Bible into Burmese and made an English-Burmese dictionary. This religious flavor to the town apparently never waned. The people of the area were noteworthy for their pious nature and because of this, no saloons were ever allowed in the village.

“Sales of the properties were quite brisk during 1857, so much so that in August of that year an additional 42 blocks of land adjacent to the town were purchased by Patterson from John A. Tidland and platted. This became known as Tidland’s Addition.”