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 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.

Val and Lena Maninger were settled in. They owned a boot and shoe business in Gridley. They had a growing family.


People in Slabtown and Gridley and Tazewell were leaving their Amish and Mennonite churches to follow a “New Amish” way, one that was more conservative, yet more dynamic and emotional.
These new congregations met in houses and barns until they could build a church.
Val and Lena Maninger would convert too.
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