Family Nibbles

We’re going to begin a series of stories about our Maninger family. 

But guess what? The history of our Maninger family has already been written! It’s “The Maninger Family: with additional sections on the related families of Barth, Smith, Schrock, Weyeneth,” by F. Robert Henderson.

Lucky for us, this marvelous history resource is available to help tell our stories. 

Dedication

Bob Henderson passed away peacefully at home February 21, 2024, at the age of 91. Here’s a link to his obituary.

Let’s dedicate this Family Nibbles series of Maninger stories to Bob. I know he would have enjoyed them.

When I began to plan the Family Nibbles series on the Maningers, the first resource I grabbed was Bob Henderson’s book ‘The Maninger Family.’ I contacted Bob to ask if we could use information from the book. Bob enthusiastically granted permission, “Sure you can use anything in the Maninger Book.”

Thank you, Bob.

The book

The Maninger Family: With Additional sections on the related families of Barth, Smith, Schrock, Weyeneth

The book is an exhaustive research of generations of Maningers and related families. It contains the lineage of hundreds of family members, beginning with Maningers in the 1600s.

Just as important, the book contains first-person accounts, letters, and memoirs by family members one or two generations past. There are recollections from people that knew Maningers of two and three generations ago.

There’s information on related family names; those that inter-married and lived farmed and worshipped with Maningers.

The Authors

The authors are F. Robert Henderson and Barbara Craig Phelps. Bob Henderson’s mother is Clara “Billie” Maninger. Barbara Craig Phelps’ husband is the grandson of Emma Maninger. 

Bob earned a master’s degree in Botany and Zoology from Fort Hays Kansas State University. He attended the University of Kansas.  From 1961-1968, he worked as a Field Biologist for the state wildlife agency in South Dakota.  From June of 1968 until 1996 he was a professor at Kansas State University. Bob was recognized as an expert in wildlife management, and has authored many books and articles on the subject.

The Backstory

In 1978, Bob began to study his family roots.  His genealogy research has resulted in several books, among them this seminal work on the Maninger family.

From that beginning, he spent the next twenty years working on the Maninger family research. He first self-published his Maninger research in 1988, ‘The Maninger Family History in America – 1852-.‘ 

He collaborated with Barbara Craig Phelps and others to continue to add to the Maninger body of work. In 2000, he published the updated version. Following are his thoughts at the time:

This has been a big job to get this manuscript to the point it is late this night of 10 November 1999. I am to take the manuscript to Ft. Scott Kansas by 7 a.m. tomorrow to the printers. That is about 100 miles from where I live. In a way I want to keep the book and keep searching for errors, but by doing so we delay the book even more. I hope each of you enjoys this book. This has taken us over 20 years to get to the point we are at tonight.

Bob Henderson – Epilogue of ‘The Maninger Family book,’ 10 November 1999

A 2023 edition

As I perused Bob’s book, I realized what a treasure it is. There’s no other resource that includes as much information on our Maninger and related families.

I’m lucky to have a copy of the book. Most of my siblings and cousins have a copy, given to us by Grandmother Emily Maninger Cheney in 2000. Most of the extended Maninger family that were alive in 2000 have a copy.

I began to wonder whether future researchers could access the book. I was devastated to find that it was out of print. I shared my concerns with Bob and Karen, and offered to help re-publish the book. They agreed. 

In September 2023, we re-published. The book is again available on Amazon Books, and also as an eBook on Kindle and Google Books. We sent copies and digital files to more libraries and historical societies.

Get the book

You can get ‘The Maninger Family’ book any of three ways: Amazon paperback, Google eBook, or Kindle eBook.

Get the Paperback Book on Amazon. The $25 price is a bargain!

Get the Google eBook on Google Books or Google Play. It’s free!

Get the Kindle eBook on Amazon or Kindle Store. The price is $2.99.

Coyotes Go To Heaven

Among Bob’s many books is his autobiographical account of the life of F. Robert Henderson and his wife Karen Lee Hollinger Henderson – ‘Coyotes Go To Heaven.’

It’s chock full of stories and anecdotes about their careers and lives. Here are some excerpts…

We decided to remain in Harper, and I entered sixth grade that year. In Harper, we had aunts and uncles, lots of cousins and friends. It was the first time that we seemed to have a normal, stable life. Mom’s sister, Eunice was an invalid, and her husband, Curly Minger, was the town marshal. Uncle Curly finally curbed our behavior when he took my brother and me down to the jail, and locked us in a cell. he told us to behave or he’d lock us up for good.

Meat was still scarce after the war, so we (Bob and his younger brother David) started a business of shooting cottontail rabbits, skinning and dressing them in our part of the basement. We then took the carcasses around the neighborhood and sold them for fifty cents each. Even after I left home, Mother would still get calls for rabbits!

When I graduated from high school in 1951, I had no intention of going to college. I wanted to trap muskrats! Mother, however, had different plans. A man she had known in Harper, Howard Gillespie, was now on the Kansas Forestry Fish and Game Commission. She talked him into giving me a summer job at the State Fish Hatchery in Pratt, Kansas.

The only college class I dreaded was speech class. I was very shy, and the thought of speaking in front of people was very scary to me. I had a lot of trouble at first, but then I gave a speech about beavers. After that, things improved.

The fact was that I had been petrified when I was in college speech class. After college, I gave talks in Kansas about coyote calling. Now in South Dakota I gained confidence of the subject. And besides that I was about the only one who knew what I was talking about, so I had no detractors.

At the end of my talk, I offered to take anyone out calling in the early morning. It was a cold morning, the ground was frozen tight. About eight people went on the trip. The old commissioner was one of them. We called two or three places, no luck. I opened a gate on the way back to the highway, and I saw a coyote track in the frozen soil. That was the first coyote sign I’d seen that morning. Upon seeing that, I suggested to the group that we should try one more time. Griffith, the commissioner, and I walked over the hill. We sat down in a badlands cut overlooking a sagebrush flat. It wasn’t unusual for me to say a prayer before I start calling. This day was especially important to me, because this old geezer could give me a job or keep me from getting the job of my lifetime. I started calling and in less than two minutes, a big bobcat appeared. He walked straight at us and came to about six feet in front of the commissioner. None of us had a weapon, so we just stared at each other. Griffith must have wound that camera at least ten times. I got the job.

I caught coyotes when they were very young, less than eleven days old. My family, Karen, and our two children, Tammy and Todd raised these coyotes to be pets. Coyotes that I took from the wild never become pets like a domestic dog. At one time, we had five coyotes. I do not think anyone can truly understand coyotes until you raise one as a pet. And doing so is not a good idea for you or a coyote.

I always prided myself on how good I could hear. Karen always said, “I could year a squirrel crawling up a tree.” Anyway, as the Indian guide and I stood waiting, I thought I heard the vehicles in the distance. To demonstrate my good hearing, I said to the guide, “I hear the vehicles coming.” And he said, “Yes, the Jeep is in front of the Ford!”

Excerpts from Coyotes Go To Heaven, by F. Robert Henderson

Get the Paperback Book or Kindle eBook on Amazon.

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Sources:

• Book – The Maninger Family: With Additional sections on the related families of Barth, Smith, Schrock, Weyeneth, F. Robert Henderson and Barbara Craig Phelps – 2000
• Book – Maninger Family History in America – 1852-, F. Robert Henderson – 1982
• Photo – Bob Henderson signing 2023 edition – Mark Jarvis
• Book – Coyotes Go To Heaven – F. Robert Henderson – 2015