The Maningers were moving to Kansas. This wasn’t a case of poor pioneers in a covered wagon with no money and no belongings.
The Maningers had money from selling the shop and farm. They were using the railroad, and taking most of their belongings. They had a farm waiting for them in Kansas.
The railroad
The Civil War had delayed the completion of the transcontinental railroad, but by 1869 the last spike was driven. By the late 1870s, a second southern route was completed.
All along the newly built main lines, feeder railroads were being built to connect towns to railroad markets. Harper was typical of small towns who campaigned for a railroad connection.
In July 1880, bonds to the amount of $28,000 were voted for the Southern Kansas & Western railroad, Harper township voting $16,000 and Chikaskia $12,000. The road was built that year.
Harper County, Kansas Genealogy and History
In 1881, the S.K & W. Railroad was merged into the Kansas City, Lawrence, and Southern Railroad. A passenger on the “express” could depart Kansas City at 9:50 am and arrive at Harper just after midnight.
Kansas City, Lawrence, and Southern Kansas Railroad Timetable – c 1882
By 1882, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad had acquired the K.C.L.&S.K. feeder line, opening the entire A.T. & S.F. railway network to Harper.
To Kansas
The Maningers and several other families would be traveling together.
The railroad had placed eight empty freight cars along the siding in Meadows. During the last days of December 1884, the families packed the cars with their belongings. Beds and furniture, of course. Kitchen supplies and a stove. Tools and farm implements. Their buggies and wagons. Livestock – horses, cows, pigs, and chickens.
The families would take a passenger train, whereas the freight cars would travel separately by freight train.
A few family members, perhaps older sons, would ride in the freight cars to take care of the animals and keep an eye on things. Perhaps John Maninger, age 17, rode along with the freight.
By January 1885, they were ready to go.
The families boarded a Wabash train. The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad that ran through Meadows and Gridley was operated by the Wabash Railroad system. The Wabash had east-west lines through Illinois and Missouri that connected in Kansas City.
Wabash RR and AT&SF RR – Gridley, Illinois to Harper, Kansas – 1885
In Kansas City, the travelers interlined with the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad and continued on the A.T. & S.F. to Harper, Kansas. Aboard the passenger train, the total journey was three or four days. The freight cars would take longer.
A.T. & S.F. train in Kansas – c 1895
Harper!
Santa Fe Depot – Harper, Kansas – c 1890
The travelers arrived in Harper in January 1885. They were greeted at the station by relatives and friends who had preceded them to Harper.
They had a place to stay, probably with Joseph and Barbara Smith’s family. Joseph was Lena Maninger’s younger brother.
The freight cars arrived within a few weeks, and the cars were spotted on a siding. Families began unloading and transporting their things.
Immigrants to Kansas unloading their belongings from rail cars
The Maninger farm
The Maningers transported their belongings to the farm a mile south of Harper. This is the farm that Barbara Smith had purchased in March 1883, probably on behalf of Val and Lena Maninger.
The Maningers paid Barbara and Joe Smith $2,500, the same amount the Smiths had paid in 1883. We can’t say for sure, but perhaps the Maningers actually gave Smiths the money in 1883 when the farm was first purchased.
Deed – Valentine Maninger from Barbara Smith and Joseph Smith – NE 1/4 Sec 18 Twp 32 Range 6W – $2,500 – March 10, 1885
We’re here
The Maninger family stepped off the train in Harper in January 1885. A few weeks later, they had all their belongings – furniture and livestock and buggy and etc.
By early March, they settled up with Barbara and Joseph Smith for their farm for a price of $2,500. Recall that they had sold their Gridley shoe shop for $650 and their Waldo farm for $8,120, so Val and Lena Maninger were pretty well set.
Family Nibbles 
