Mapleton Township is a township in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 310 as of the 2000 census.
History
Mapleton Township was organized in 1861, and named from the Maple River.
Mapleton Township was first settled in 1856 and was first known as Sherman Township, named for Isaac sherman, one of the original settlers. The area included the present townships of Sterling, Mapleton, and Danville. School District No. 5 was organized on the same date and covered the same territory. Two years later, in April 1858, present-day Sterling Township was organized under the name of Mapleton but was renamed "Sterling Township" in 1859. With the separation of the two towns, the present names were adopted. The first town meetings of the independent municipalities were held in April 1861.
The Mapleton Colony
In the winter of 1854-55 A. Murphy, a New York City school teacher, ran a newspaper ad for a meeting to form a colony to locate in the territory of Minnesota to establish their homes. Through advertising the colony drew membership from the northeastern states, the majority from New York; almost all had English or Scottish surnames.
The group that came out of this was called The Minnesota Settlement Association, with A. Murphy as the president. Robert Taylor was authorized to go to southern Minnesota to select the best location for the settlement. Taylor came to Blue Earth County in the winter of 1855-56 and was helped by L.G.M. Fletcher, who had originally helped survey lands around Sterling and Mapleton Townships. The only settlers in this area at this time were V.A. Highland and his two brothers-in-law, Barnabas W. Simmons and Horace M. DeWolf.