The Maningers arrived in Kansas in January 1885. They brought with them furniture and beds, kitchen, tools, farm implements, and livestock. Awaiting them was a quarter-section farm with a house a mile south of Harper.
Harper was organized as a city of the third class on September 7, 1880. The population of the city is 779.
History of the State of Kansas – A.T. Andreas – 1883
Harper was a kind of boom town. In less than a decade, its population grew to over one thousand. It boasted an opera house, several banks, five churches, and fine schools. There were livery stables and blacksmith shops, and a lumber and coal yard. It had a railroad that accessed the A.T. & S.F. network. There was even an ice cream and candy store.
The Maningers weren’t “starting over.” They were resuming their lives, but in a new place. They got right to work. Val and his three teenage sons began working the farm. Lena set up housekeeping.
The Maninger household
In the 1885 Kansas Census, Val Maninger was age 50, Lena age 43
- John Maninger b. 1867 age 17
- Frank Maninger b. 1869 age 15
- Gus Maninger b. 1872 age 12
- Emma Maninger b. 1874 age 10
- Joseph Maninger b. 1876 age 8
- Will Maninger b. 1879 age 5
- Edward Maninger b. 1881 age 3
Frederick Albert Maninger was born in Harper on Tuesday, December 1, 1885, after the census was enumerated. He was the eighth child, the only one born in Kansas.
The census also lists Dan Hurzig in the household, likely a farm hand.
The farm
When the Maningers arrived in 1885, they bought the northeast quarter of Section 18, consisting of 160 acres.
By 1887, they had purchased two more quarters, the northwest and southwest. They had 480 acres.
The original house sat on the northwest corner of the farm, less than a mile south of Harper.
With the help of his sons, Val Maninger could work a 480-acre farm.
Maninger threshing crew
Ever industrious, the older Maninger boys and their Smith cousins did contract wheat threshing. Christian and Joseph Smith were sons of Joseph and Barbara Smith.
Threshing separates the wheat kernels from the straw. Steam-powered threshing machines came onto the scene in the 1880s, greatly reducing the time and effort.
Threshing was hot and dirty and dangerous work. Accidents happened, as when John Maninger was thrown off the machine and knocked unconscious.
Apostolic Christian Church
By the time the Maningers arrived in Harper, a congregation of New Amish had been established. It consisted mostly of families who had been Maninger friends and neighbors in Illinois.
The churches were adopting the name Apostolic Christian Church, which would become the official U.S. name in 1918.
By the mid-1880s, there was a large congregation. In the spring of 1886, a new church building was built on the east side of Harper.
Serving as ministers were Elder Gottlieb Kurz, whose farm was just west of Maningers. Elder Joel Herman was the minister in Gridley, and had moved to Harper.
Women wore head coverings in church. Magdalena Maninger crocheted these bonnets – one for her and one for daughter Emma. They were probably made in the 1880s, when Emma was around age 12. Lena and Emma wore these to services in the Harper church.
The Maninger cemetery
In October 1885, 10-month-old Nettie Smith died. She was the daughter of Joseph and Barbara Smith. Recall that Joseph Smith was Lena Smith Maninger’s younger brother. He and Barbara had come to Harper with their family two years before the Maningers.
Nettie was buried in a plot in the northeast corner of the Maninger farm. She was the first to be interred in what would become the Maninger Cemetery, later the Christian Apostolic Cemetery.
Two years later, in October 1887, Joseph and Barbara Smith lost their 8-month-old son Willie. He was buried next to Nettie.
Sadly, Joseph Smith died on January 3, 1889, at age 45. On Sunday, January 6, he joined his two infant children in the Maninger Cemetery. He was the first adult interred there.
The Leah Eggli mystery
Leah Eggli lived with the Maningers. They raised her like a daughter. Why this happened is a bit of a mystery, but here are some clues.
Henry and Carrie Eggli were Maninger neighbors in Illinois. They farmed between Gridley and Meadows. In 1885, they had eight children, from newborn to nine years. Leah was born in 1881, so was age four in 1885.
The Egglis were devout parishioners in the Apostolic Church in Gridley. Like others in the church, they decided to move to Kansas. They sold their farm, left Illinois, and were in Harper by early 1886.
Henry was a farmer, but also a carpenter. We find him working on the new Apostolic Church in Harper in May 1886, where a scaffold collapsed and injured him. No serious injuries.
Henry and Carrie Eggli bought a house and five acres on the northeast edge of Harper in June 1886.
Next we know, Carrie Eggli and her newborn baby died in Gridley, Illinois in March 1887.
I speculate that Henry and Carrie Eggli returned to Gridley during the pregnancy, perhaps to be around parents or family. I speculate that 6-year-old Leah stayed with the Maningers while her parents were in Illinois.
After Carrie and the newborn baby died, Henry Eggli returned to Harper. He, and presumably his children, continued their lives in Harper. He bought more lots in town. We don’t know if Leah left the Maningers and lived in her father’s household, but maybe so.
Now the written record goes blank for a few years. The next facts we have are several foreclosure lawsuits in Harper beginning in 1891. Mortgage lenders filed lawsuits against Henry and Carrie Eggli. Henry Eggli left Harper and returned to Peoria, Illinois with some of his children.
Leah Eggli stayed with the Maningers.
During the 1890s, Henry had various carpentry and woodworking jobs in Peoria. In 1901, he died at the Peoria County Hospital, perhaps the poor farm.
From around 1889, Leah Eggli was a member of the Maninger household.
It’s 1889
All the goings-on in this story happened from 1885 to 1889. By that time, the Maningers were well-established in Harper.
Val and Lena Maninger had acquired a large farm. The Maninger children were coming of age. John Maninger, age 22, pursued a romantic interest back in Illinois.
Timeline
Sources:
- Image – Harper, Kansas – 1882 – Harper Historical Calendar – Harper County Library – Harper, Kansas
- Quote – Organization of Harper – History of the State of Kansas – A.T. Andreas – 1883 – https://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/harper/harper-co-p6.html#BIOGRAPHICAL_SKETCHES
- Image – Harper, Kansas – 1880 – Harper Historical Calendar – Harper Historical Museum – Harper, Kansas
- News – Mr. Maninger cutting wheat – Harper Graphic – June 20, 1888
- Map – excerpt of Maninger farm – Map of Harper Township, Harper County, Kansas – 1887 – Davy Atlas of Harper County – Anthony Public Library – Anthony, Kansas
- Census – Valentine Maninger family – Kansas Census – 1885 – Ancestry.com – https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1088/images/ks1885_54-0242?pId=7528086
- Image – Valentine Maninger house – The Maninger Family – F. Robert Henderson and Barbara Craig Phelps – 2000 – p. 18
- Image – Threshing crew, Harper County, Kansas – Harper Kansas Museum Scrapbook – Harper Historical Museum – Harper, Kansas
- News – John Maninger accident on threshing crew – Harper Sentinel – September 19, 1889 – newspapers.com
- Image – Apostolic Christian Church – Harper, Kansas – Marching to Zion – Perry A. Klopfenstein – p. 293 – image edited by Mark Jarvis
- Images – Magdalena Maninger bonnets – Harper Historical Museum – Harper, Kansas – photos by Mark Jarvis
- Image – Headstone of Nettie and Willie Smith – FindAGrave – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/25253572/nettie-smith
- News – Joseph Smith sickness and death – Harper Sentinel – January 3, 1889 – Newspapers.com
- News – Joseph Smith funeral and burial – Harper Daily Republican – January 5, 1889 – Newspapers.com
- Headstone – Joseph Smith – photo by Mark Jarvis
- Photos – Emma, John, and Priscilla Maninger and maybe Leah Eggli – Maninger Family Documents – Emily Maninger Cheney collection
- News – Eggli family has a new baby girl – The Weekly Pantagraph – January 30, 1885 – newspapers.com
- News – Henry Eggli sold out and moving to Kansas – The Weekly Pantagraph – December 18, 1885 – newspapers.com
- News – Henry Eggli injured working on Apostolic Church – Harper Sentinel – May 22, 1886 – newspapers.com
- News – Henry Eggli buys lots in Harper – The Daily Graphic – June 25, 1886 – newspapers.com
- News – Sheriff’s sale of Eggli property – The Anthony Journal – December 8, 1893 – newspapers.com
- Family Tree diagrams – Ancestry.com and Mark Jarvis
- Music – Roundup on the Prairie – Aaron Kenny – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fj-aqD3MHY
Family Nibbles 