As fast as the prairie land was turned into town lots, Manning began to bustle with business activity. By December 29, 1881 -- four months after the first lots were sold -- the town had 112 buildings either up or in the process of construction; 69 of these were businesses.

"It is claimed by commercial travelers and others who are in a position to know that more business is conducted in Manning than in any other town of the same size in the State of Iowa," states the 1906 Carroll County Atlas.

During the past 100 years, Manning's business directory has shown many things: changes made as old ideas became obsolete and new products became available; the stability of long-time firms; and the continuous growth of services and enterprises.

A business review of Manning's first year, made in 1882, showed 94 firms; in 1906, there were 120. For this centennial book, over 140 businesses and professional services were listed.

Manning now has firms which our pioneer fathers never dreamed of hybrid seed corn dealerships, a rural water system, a motorcycle shop, a pizza house. New buildings have pushed the business district to the north and west edges of town, and the Urban Renewal Agency has promoted the Bavarian look for the downtown area. Trucks hauling soybeans to the processing plant, hogs to the buying station, parts to the manufacturing plants, and equipment brought for repairs, show license plates from a wide radius of the town.

Erwin Hansen, Manning's senior attorney, sums up the growth this way: It is noteworthy that Manning's population has remained constant over the decades. In earlier days, many more people were needed to man the shops, provide the services, and run the factories; today, methods have become more mechanized and automated, resulting in the call for fewer employees. Manning has therefore grown, providing new jobs for the laborers, new prospects for the store owners, and new lines of industry.

As we look at the histories of Manning's businesses, we should keep in mind the changes the community has faced, and the success our business leaders have made in keeping up with the changes. We have not attempted to list every storekeeper who has conducted business in Manning, but instead hope to show the trends of the past 100 years.

The Manning Creamery was built in 1883 by G.W. Coe, who operated it a number of years, then sold it to a Mr. Wilson. The creamery stood idle for some time, then purchased by Hoelker Bros. of Halbur.

A.T. Bennett bought it in the summer of 1898; his manager, F.W. Miller, a professional dairyman and buttermaker, purchased the business in February, 1899. The following March, Miller sold it to Wiese Bros. and Sweger, who had also purchased creameries in Irwin, Aspinwall and Botna, and were making plans to build one at Manilla. Adam Wiese and Sweger ran the creamery, while Charles Wiese ran the merchandising business.

The Manning Creamery was incorporated February 17, 1912, and began manufacturing butter and ice cream in early April. The original facilities were purchased from the Fairmont Creamery of Omaha, Nebraska. About 70 local business men and farmers were stockholders and the first officers were: C.H. Reinholdt, president; H.C. Darger, secretary; D.W. Sutherland, treasurer; H.A. Sweger, vice president and general manager.

During early years all cream was gravityseparated on farms, and was brought to the creamery in two, three, and five gallon cans by individual farmers or shipped by rail in the baggage cars which were a part of every passenger train. The only method of cooling cream on the farm was by placing the cans in a water tank. The first cream haulers were J.H. Schleeter and Peter Lohmeier; by 1917, the delivery fleet consisted of one small truck and one horse.

Later, truck routes were established and the

cream was separated by mechanical separators and picked up at the farms and at cream buying stations in other towns. There was at least one cream station in nearly every town. Finally, only grade A milk was gathered by tank trucks from refrigerated stainless steel tanks owned by individual milk producers.

Distilled water block ice was manufactured from 1914 until 1946, when mechanical refrigerators had pretty well replaced the ice box. Ice was used along with rock salt to pack ice cream for delivery; it also was delivered to local homes by horse and wagon and later by truck. Ice was also supplied to railroads and several neighboring towns as time passed.

In 1919, two new coal burning, hand fired steam boilers and one Corliss steam engine were purchased from Murray Iron Works, Burlington for $4761.00. This required the building of the first of many additions to the original building. The steam engine was used to drive one large ammonia compressor, which produced the refrigeration for the ice plant, and one generator which supplied electricity to the entire operation. When the engine was not in use, electricity was purchased. These boilers were later converted to coal stokers, were later replaced by oil burning boilers, and finally natural gas was the primary fuel used.

J.A. (Jake) Bruck became general manager in 1917 and served in this capacity until his death in 1942.

It was during this period that the business volume and trade territory grew until Manning butter, ice cream, cottage cheese and milk were sold in most towns within 50 miles of Manning. The company truck fleet in later years numbered about 20.

Bulk butter was shipped by rail and later by truck to markets in Chicago and New York. During the 1930's, up to one and a half million pounds of butter were produced annually. The manufacture of butter was discontinued in 1958 and thereafter Manning butter was custom manufactured and packaged by Crystal Springs Creamery at Kimballton.

Originally, bulk butter was packed in wooden tubs which were replaced by cardboard boxes holding 64 pounds each. For many years, each stick of packaged butter was wrapped and placed in one pound cartons by hand.

The sterilization room inside the creamery.

Delivery vehicles of the late 1930's.

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During early years, ice cream was packaged only in bulk, in five gallon metal cans. The cans were in turn packed in crushed ice and rock salt in wooden tubs. The retail stores employed wood chests, refrigerated in the same manner, into which the cans were inserted through the top into metal sleeves. The only "packaged" ice cream was hand packed in the retail stores and soda fountains.

The first ice cream bars were "Eskimo Pies" which were cut by hand with a large knife from quart blocks or "bricks" of ice cream, hand dipped into a pot of melted "Hershey's" milk chocolate, then hand wrapped in their familiar foil wrappers.

Over a period of years, Jake Bruck purchased three farms and in the mid-1920s began stocking them with Holstein-Friesian cattle. The primary purpose of this venture was to ensure a supply of milk for the manufacture of ice cream and cottage cheese. For some years there was no mechanical method of cooling this milk on the farms so it was brought to the plant in ten gallon cans after each milking.

Through many years of selective breeding, this herd, numbering about 200 head, became one of the leading Holstein dairy herds in this section of the country. The herd, known as ManCryCo Farms, was sold intact in 1963 to Lester Dammann, who was then herdsman. He continued development of his breeding program until a dispersal sale was held in 1974, attracting buyers from seven states besides Iowa.

Leo Bruck was general manager of the creamery from 1942 until the company was sold late in 1971 to Wells' Dairy Co., LeMars.

In 1947, the Manning Creamery became the first dairy in Iowa west of Iowa City to package milk in paper cartons.

Employees numbered about 35 year-round and with several others, usually students, hired during summer months. Many high school students had their first jobs at the creamery during summer vacations.

During the last full year of business, the company purchased nearly 8,000,000 pounds of milk and cream from nearby dairy farmers and sold 65,000 gallons of ice cream, 40,000 dozen frozen novelties, 165,000 pounds of butter, 142,000 pounds of cottage cheese and the equivalent of over 3,000,000 quarts of fluid milk products.

Long before there were milk trucks running on our paved streets to supply customers with the milk they needed, and before the grocery stores had milk for sale in their modern refrigerators, the people of Manning depended upon small milking businesses or owning a cow of their own to supply their milk needs.

Several of these family businesses operated in Manning for many years. One such business was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Rohr Sr. They had three or four cows, Jersey or Guernsey, whose milk tested higher in butterfat. The cows were kept in a barn in the winter on the Rohr property and driven to and from a pasture west of the Northwestern track in the summer.

The business was a family project. Mrs. Rohr would strain the milk thoroughly and then dip it into small pint and quart sized pails with tight fitting lids. As for sanitation, the pails and everything used in the milking process had to be thoroughly scrubbed and scalded after use. Cows had to be tested for tuberculosis to insure the safety of the customers from contracting T.B. from the milk.

Since there was no refrigeration in those days, the basement floor or a box lowered down into the well were the next best thing. Milk left over would be put into a crock and cooled until the cream would rise to the top. This would be skimmed off until enough was saved for butter making in the old fashioned churn. Buttermilk was used for drinking or for buttermilk soup. Any left-over skimmed milk was made into cottage cheese so there was very little waste.

Whether or not it was a money-making affair is very questionable. But it did supply the family with its milk, besides keeping them busy and out of mischief.

Others involved in the same type of business in the early days included Peter Kuhl Sr., Hans Grube, Dau & Kempf, Peter Rix, John Schrum, Chris Barten and C.H. Pruter, who sold his dairy to Julius Rostermundt, who in turn sold to Dave Dalgety. Older citizens will remember Mrs. Loyd Barnes making her daily rounds in a little square enclosed buggy drawn by one horse. She carried the milk in large cans and dipped out what each customer wanted. Prices were 5c a pint.

When a law was passed requiring the milk to be homogenized, it was the end of those nostalgic days and the home milking business.

Ed Stuhr recalls hauling milk for his father, Theodore, north of Manning. The Stuhrs had two routes, going 30 miles a day throughout the countryside, picking up about 85 cans of sweet milk per wagon. The milk was taken to the Fairmont Creamery in Manning to be separated, then was hauled back to the farms, where it could be fed to the hogs. This was in the early 1900's, before farmers had their own separators.

Workers at the Manning Nursery.

The need for a nursery in Manning was soon realized, as homeowners wanted to beautify their homes and farmers began to plant windbreaks and shrubs to prevent soil erosion.

H.D. Radeleff came to Manning in the spring of 1885, and opened his nursery south of town in what is now Sextro's Addition. The nursery was continued for more than 15 years.

The flower shop business was launched in 1949 by Wesley DeBoth, who had worked in a flower shop in Oskaloosa until 1948. He then built a flower shop on Highway 71 in Audubon.

His mother, Ann DeBoth, opened the Manning shop on the north end of Main Street, where the post office now stands. The shop was moved to 313 Main Street in 1956. After a year there, Ann sold out and moved to Carroll to start a shop there.

In 1964, the owners here took bankruptcy and Wesley DeBoth once more took it over. Billie Voge came to Manning to work in her brother's shop; she bought the business in 1967, and moved it to its present location at 415 Main Street.

In 1976, Mrs. Voge added a Sears Roebuck Catalog Agency to the flower shop, which continues to be known as the DeBoth Florist.