REV. JOSEPH MANNING, of Jefferson, has resided in that city since October, 1866. He laid out an addition to the northeast part of the town, which bears his name. He is a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, and one of the pioneers of this part of the State. He was born in Abington, Wayne County, Indiana, April 7, 1824, where he was reared to manhood. His father, Thomas Manning, was a native of Pennsylvania, and one of the early settlers of Wayne County, Indiana, where he lived until his decease.
Mr. Manning entered the itineracy of the United Brethren church when only twenty years of age, his field of labor being in the White River Conference. Later, he was transferred to the Wabash Conference, where he remained five years, thence to the Iowa Conference, his field of labor being in the eastern part of the State. He traveled five years in the Iowa Conference, in the interests of the Western College, and two years as presiding elder and one year as station preacher at Lisbon. When he came to Jefferson there was no United Brethren society in the place, and he decided to unite with the Methodists. In the fall of 1868 he joined the conference at Council Bluffs and engaged in itinerant work of the Methodist church. He organized a church at Carroll in 1869, and at Glidden the same year. In 1870 he organized the first Methodist Episcopal church at Grand Junction. This is but a small portion of the work accomplished by Mr. Manning; he has devoted time and energies to ministerial work for many years.
He was married in 1846, in Preble County, Ohio, to Miss Jane Bonebrake, of that county, born in 1828. Her father, George Bonebrake, was a minister of the United Brethren church. He came to Iowa from Indiana, and many years later went to Topeka, Kansas, where he died in 1865. The mother, Eliza (Adams) Bonebrake, died in Indiana before her husband came to this State.
Mr. and Mrs. Manning have four children. The eldest son, Orlando H, is a man of much distinction. He obtained his education at Western and Cornell Colleges, Iowa; studied law with Head & Russell, at Jefferson ; later, located at Carroll, where he practiced law until the fall of 1881, when he removed to Council Bluffs, and later settled in Topeka, Kansas. He served two terms in the Iowa Legislature, from Carroll and Greene Counties; was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Iowa in 1881, and re-elected in 1883. He is at present attorney for the Central National Bank, of Topeka, and also for the Loan Investment Company; he is a man of marked ability.
Their second child, Jennie, is the wife of Alfred A. Kearney, of Stanton, Nebraska, an attorney of that place. Their third child, George B., is with his brother in Topeka; and May L. is engaged in teaching.
Mr. Manning has spent the best portion of his life in the ministry, and has been an advocate of all principles tending to the advancement of religion and the moral interests of mankind.
