There were lots of Maningers in Harper County in the latter years of the 1890s. The family tree was sprouting branches.

There were lots of Maningers in Harper County in the latter years of the 1890s. The family tree was sprouting branches.

Maningers lived in Harper County in the 1890s. They spent their days cooking, farming, raising children, and doing countless other everyday chores. Most other people did too.

Now and then in the history of everyday lives, extraordinary events occur.
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Recall that Benedict Weyeneth was the first elder of the Apostolic Christian Church in America. He and his wife and family settled in Roanoke, Woodford County, Illinois around 1857.
Our families descend from Benedict’s parents through Benedict’s brother Jacob Weyeneth.
Continue readingThe 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.

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 1880s dawned clear and bright for Val and Lena Maninger. Things seemed to be going their way. But there was a fever in the air. Kansas fever.

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.

Family Nibbles – Volume 10 is here! This book is about the lives of our Gallagher ancestors from 1915 to 1941.

1941 was a watershed year. The end of the Great Depression. The beginning of World War II. It had profound effects on our family.
The Federal budget increased by an astounding 50 percent between 1940 and 1941. Virtually all of the increase was for military spending.
In 1941 unemployment would drop below 10 percent for the first time since 1930.
Unemployment Rate 1938-1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library

Continue readingIn February 1941 fully one percent of the American labor force was at work building army training camps for 1.4 million new draftees.
The End of the Great Depression – National Bureau of Economic Research

In April 1940 Germany attacked Denmark and Norway. In May, Germany took Belgium and the Netherlands. In June, France fell to the conquering Germans. Japan had overrun China. In September, Italy joined Germany and Japan in an Axis treaty.
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