After several changes through the years, two prominent variety stores prevail today.

One business, the M.F. Enenbach Variety Store, no longer exists. But in 1916, it stood at 310 Main Street, when after several ownership changes, Enenbach was manager. The store succeeded the former Hub Store, organized by George Horning. Horning, however, had sold the business to John D. Gray who operated it successfully for a number of years, then sold it to Chase & Howland, from whom Enenbach purchased it. Enenbach was a former superintendent of schools from Neola. At the time of his death in 1944 he was manager of the state liquor store.

"The Dime Store" as it is now known had its origin in 1932 when Clara and A.W. Martens purchased the Senter Variety Store which had opened in 1926. Al had previously worked for the Senter chain in Carroll, Nevada, Jefferson, and then in Manning.

The store name was changed to A.W. Martens 5c to $1 store and was first located in what is now the recently remodeled John Hornberger office building. In 1935 the store was moved to the present "Dime Store" location and took the Ben Franklin franchise and became known as the "Ben Franklin Store".

In 1960 the Ben Franklin franchise was dropped and became known as the "Martens Variety". Clara and Al operated the store until January, 1971, when the store was purchased by their son Gene, who had moved his family back to Manning from a teaching job in Snohomish, Washington. Gene did some remodeling by adding some length to the merchandising area and installing central air conditioning.

On July 1, 1978, Gene sold the store to be able to return to Washington to enter another business enterprise. The new and present owners are Marsha (Mrs. Loren) Clausen and Joyce (Mrs. Don) Zubrod who have renamed the firm, "The Dime Store".

The present owners carry the same lines of merchandise and offer the same quality service as their predecessors. They hope to continue the good public relations and patronage enjoyed by this store through the years.

Ral-Mar's dates back to 1955 when Ralph and Martha Hagedorn decided to enter into business for themselves. Renting a building next to the old fire station, they started with a small inventory of drugs, cosmetics, school supplies, gifts, novelties, candy, and ice cream.

In 1964, the couple moved to their present location from across the street where the Manning Plaza is now situated. After merchandise and building fixtures were moved, a lunch counter was added along with three tables, three booths, and seven stools.

A bakery line of donuts, rolls, breads, buns, and decorated cakes was added in May, 1971. Improvements on the building front were made in 1973.

Ral-Mar's employs one full-time person who aids Ralph, Martha, and their son, Mark in running the business.

The owners comment, "Our business has been very good in the past 25 years and we are grateful for the many fine people in Manning."

Why has trucking become a big industry in Manning? Approximately 17 local truckers reveal the independence of trucking and meeting and working with people as two main reasons.

Even with the high costs of equipment, fuel, taxes, and insurance, the industry of trucking has thrived in this community.

One long-remembered trucking business which changed ownership through the years was Claussen Transfer Line. Herman H. Claussen, son of Hans C. Claussen who started a dray business in 1888, was owner of the line and began the business following World War II.

The first several years he used a horse-drawn wagon-truck to serve Manning. Later he purchased a motorized truck and built up a freight

Jim Ramsey and two of his trucks and livestock trailers.

transfer system going west to Omaha and east to Des Moines on alternate days. This haul was regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission. In addition, he continued his local service to Manning until he sold the business to Claus Nielsen in 1944. At that time, the Claussen family moved to their farm in Winterset.

Nielsen continued the trucking business until 1949 when he sold it to Bill Saterly of Oakland who operated it for three years. In 1952, Crouse Cartage Company of Carroll purchased the original Claussen Transfer Line.

One faithful employee, Leonard Farrell, assisted both Claussen and Nielsen consecutively when they were owners of the business.

Ramsey's Transfer, the oldest operating trucking business in Carroll County, was launched by Mayburn Ramsey in 1934 with one straight truck. Ramsey first headquartered out of his home at Aspinwall and moved to Manning several months later. The firm then located at the Twin Gables Station (now Casey's General Store) and later at the corner of East Street and Highway 141 for about eight years. For the past ten years, office and truck facilities have been situated on Highway 141.

Ed H. Ramsey joined his brother in the late 1930's. Ed retired in the fall of 1973 and Mayburn continued running the business until his death November 4, 1973. Today it is operated by Mrs. Mayburn Ramsey and her son, Jim.

The transfer line has grown to include three full-time and two part-time employees, five tractors, three grain trailers, two straight trucks, four pot belly trailers, and two straight livestock trailers. During Mayburn's lifetime, he served for a number of years on the Board of Iowa Better Trucking Bureau.

Operator Jim Ramsey explained the business' prosperity by saying, "We try to do a good job, give good service, and be fair to all we work with."

Another of the trucking businesses in Manning is Wayne Schroeder Trucking Service which began in 1951 with one straight truck. Today the business has grown to a fleet of 18 units: semi tractors, grain and feed trailers, livestock trailers, van, gas transport, and corn sheller.

Wayne Schroeder, 1966.

In 1971, Wayne and his wife Lila purchased the warehouse at 823 Third Street, formerly the Manning Creamery Co., Inc. to house the fleet. To expand their facilities, they added the creamery building at the corner of Third and Elm in 1979. This facility has since housed other businesses which have opened in the community.

The firm employs two persons, Leroy "Tater" and Leonard Dammann.

Wade Mohr, owner of McMahon's Feed and Seed, purchased some of his trucking equipment as early as 1946. Since then, he has continued to haul grain and livestock.

A number of truckers have become owner-operators in Manning.

Owner-operator, Wayne "Butch" Jensen, has been involved in the trucking industry for 14 years. He has driven his Kenworth conventional tractor with leased trailers on a run such as a haul of grain to Chicago and steel to Denver. Jensen believes that trucking is a challenge in itself and added that "you must be business-minded today" to survive in the trucking industry.

Jim Wittrock has hauled grain locally in his Kenworth cabover and hopper trailer for the past three years. Jim too has been in the trucking business for several years, but has operated his semi out of Manning since 1976.

In addition to his personal rig, he employs one driver to operate his tandem straight truck which he purchased in 1965.

Jim dreads icy roads in winter, but explained that overall he "just really enjoys trucking".

Jerry Voge, owner of Jerry Voge Trucking, became an owner-operator in 1975 when he purchased one Peterbilt semi tractor. By 1980, he owned two tractors, a Mack and a Peterbilt, and three grain trailers. Expansion of his business was largely due to the local soybean processing plant, according to Jerry. His office and truck equipment building is located in southwest Manning.

Voge predicted, "Due to the conflict in the railway system, everyone will be depending on trucks."

Another local operator, Mel Jackson, purchased his own semi tractor and trailer in 1978. His white freightliner cabover and utility flatbed make up his rig which hauls "whatever is available". He and his wife, who does the bookkeeping, are the sole operators of the business.

Mel believes truckers reside in Manning, because "they can live here, in a small town, cheaper than in a city".

One of the most recent to become an owneroperator is Kim Jahn. Kim purchased his own tractor in 1980 and leases a trailer from Voge trucking.

Most local truckers of the 1980's apparently feel that the advantages of operating a truck outweigh the disadvantages. Several expressed the opinion that AGRI Industries, the local soybean processing plant, will help the trucking industry continue to prosper in Manning.

Poultry business was big business for much of Manning's first century. There were as many as seven hatcheries, produce, or processing services in operation at once, employing dozens of people.

It is claimed that Manning fared better than most communities during the depression of the 1930's because of its production of eggs, chickens, potatoes and cream. Farmers were aided through a fairly constant market price for these items, and jobs in town were assured by the need for their handling.

Nearly every farm had chickens. Many of the machine sheds and hog barns on today's farms were originally built as chicken houses, either for laying hens or broilers.

The poultry business was so important to Manning that the West Iowa Poultry Association was organized and headquartered here in the 1920's. It was formed by area hatchery men, produce houses, poultry breeders, and businessmen, who held an annual show at the Manning Opera House from 1926 until the outbreak of World War 11. The shows lasted a week, with the showing and judging of the poultry during the day, and entertainment by local talent during the evenings.

The State Poultry Show was held in Manning in 1936. Over 1,600 birds were entered from as far as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the Manning firms began to close as large U.S. Packer/Feeder companies became involved in the industry, mostly in the southern United States. Today, there are no hatcheries in Manning. Live chicks can be special-ordered from J & S Feed, Manning Agricultural Center, Schroeder Feed & Seed Co., and G & R Hatchery, and these four firms, plus McMahon Feed and Seed, sell poultry feed.

A produce firm which opened in 1893 in the basement of the First National Bank Building grew into one of Iowa's leading poultry processing businesses.

W.B. Parrott began working for the Jarvis Gafford Produce Co., which bought poultry, eggs, butter and cream. After a fire destroyed the bank in 1895, the business was reopened in a building north of City Hall. Parrott remained there until 1898, when the firm was purchsed by Judson and Lenhart, who moved to a new location at lot 6, block 7.

The W. B. Parrott Produce Company, about 1918.

Parrott and his family then started the Manning Produce Company. From 1902 to 1904, the firm sold its products to Armour and Co. A strike at Armour forced Parrott to seek new markets, and he turned to Priebe & Simater of Chicago. As a Priebe subsidiary, the Manning firm became known as the W.B. Parrott Co.

In April, 1945, Priebe & Sons, Inc., bought the Parrott Co. Although there was no change in location, personnel, management or policy, the Parrott name was dropped and the firm became known as Priebe & Sons. Priebe & Sons was at the time operating 27 poultry and egg plants, 17 hatcheries, and had distribution centers in New York, Kansas City, Cleveland, and Chicago, the home of its general office.

The plant, located in a three story, 100 by 135 foot building at the intersection of Front and Second Streets, became a combination hatchery, produce company, and processing firm. Processing began in the early 1900's when old laying hens were dressed and packed in ice-lined boxcars for shipment to Chicago and New York. Some of the meat was used for Campbell's soups.

An ammonia cooling system added in 1910 made cooling with ice obsolete. As the business expanded, five more ammonia cooling systems and four coolers were added.

An egg drying plant was added in 1943, this country's first large-scale war industry. The plant ran 24 hours a day with a goal of drying 5,000,000 pounds of eggs per year. During this time, the firm employed 130 people and had a weekly payroll of $3,000. The Manning plant processed 44,000 pounds more eggs than any other plant in the United States.

To process the eggs, between 12,000 to 15,000 cases passed through the breaking room each day, which was operated by a crew of 72 women working three shifts. After being candled and sorted, the eggs were broken and put into 50-pound cans. Men poured the eggs into a large mixer and then ran them through a strainer to remove any shells. After being cooled, the mixture was carted to the drying room. It ran through a hydraulic pump under 5,000 pounds of pressure, to the two-story drier funnel where the mix was subjected to intense heat. It was spraydried until about two-thirds of the volume was removed by evaporation. The egg mixture went into a second drier and then into barrels. Each barrel, which was lined with a heavy wax paper and held 175 pounds, was government tested and sealed. The end product looked much like yellow flour; 97 percent of the moisture had been removed.

These dried eggs, purchased by the Surplus Marketing Administration, were used by the U.S. Army during World War II. This was one way the government could control a steady price of 22 cents which was being maintained on eggs at the time.

Although the egg drying was discontinued in the early 1950's, the freezing of eggs was continued. Eggs had been frozen at Priebe's since the 1930's and sold to bakeries, mayonnaise companies, etc.

In the late 1940's, nearly 100,000 broilers and turkeys per week were packed at Priebe and Sons' Manning plant. Priebes owned a broiler farm one-half mile south of town, where they raised 85,000 chicks at all times. The premium product was Priebe's Silver Broilers. The firm also sold to farms in this area and as far away as northern Missouri and southern Minnesota and then bought the broilers back at about three pounds for processing.

In 1950, the Priebe Hatchery was opened as a separate unit from the shell egg, poultry procurement, and processing department. The Hatchery was managed by Glen Kusel and was located on Highway 141, the present home of Rasmussen Lumber.

Henry W. Brandhorst managed the Parrott business from 1910 until August, 1945. Brandhorst had bought an interest in the company in 1917; W.B. Parrott sold his interest in 1924 and left the firm to farm.

Other managers included Claude Anderson, Earl Gordon, Ted Thedford, and Leonard Frahm.

More than $2.75 million was pumped into the Manning economy by the Parrott Company in 1944, the last year operated under that name. This included $2,663,656 paid out for eggs and poultry, $5,602 for hatching eggs, and $88,432 in wages.

By 1956, the processing plant was employing 98 people and the hatchery business had four employees.

Priebe's continued the business until 1957, when the company moved its entire operation to North Carolina. Randulf Produce Co. kept the business open two more years; the 50 year old processing building was then rented to Pacific Adhesives for use as a blood drying plant, and by Schroeder's Farm Store. In January, 1967, the original part of the building was destroyed in a $112,000 fire. The brick building added in 1941 as part of the egg drying system was hardly damaged, and continued the next ten years as the blood drying facility. Today, that too has been closed.

The first chick hatching business in the Manning area was started in the 1920's in the basement of the John Kruse farm home east of Westside. By 1930, a brick building at 509 Main Street was purchased and the main operation was moved into Manning. The Kruse family also operated four other hatcheries in surrounding towns.

Eustice Lake opened a hatchery at 1203 South Main Street about the same time. He later moved to the northwest corner of Third and Main Streets. Frank Fister offered chicken culling in the 1930's, and firms such as the Farmer's Union Service Association, Lake's, and Kruse's sold poultry feeds.

Lloyd Rix opened a feed and produce business in 1941, and Harry Raebel started Raebel Produce in 1943. Raebel added a hatchery to the business in 1945.

Roger Nissen entered the poultry business during this time, and in early 1945, he and Merle Stoelk went into partnership in Nissen's Hatchery. The business operated until November, 1946.

Clarence Grundmeier purchased the Kruse Hatchery in 1942, retaining the Kruse name. After a fire damaged the business in 1943, Grundmeier bought Lake's store and changed the name to the Grundmeier Hatchery. Lake, who had also had a grinding and feed manufacture business, continued that line.

Grundmeier first hatched between 50,000 and 75,000 chicks a year during the three month season. When broiler hatching began in 1948, that number increased to one and a half million annually. In broiler hatching, the eggs were placed on long trays in incubators. Every three hours, the eggs were turned mechanically. In 21 days, the chicks hatched and were put in big boxes; the day-old chicks were sexed and sold. Many went to area farmers, and eventually sold to the Priebe processing plant. Nearly 40,000 chicks a week, in two deliveries, were shipped to Arkansas.

The Grundmeiers had many hatching flocks in the area and as far away as Maryville, Missouri and the northeast corner of Iowa. The firm also did a large business in cream and eggs.

Raebel Produce moved into the basement of the former Kruse building, 509 Main, shortly after the 1943 fire. Throughout the years, the building had housed a hotel, livery barn, dance hall, vereins, Petersen Garage, and today, Manning Motor.

In the summer of 1946, the Ross Graner family purchased Raebel Produce, and in November, they purchased half interest in Nissen's Hatchery. The business was then renamed the Hi-Way Hatchery and Produce, and included a hatching operation, the buying and selling of eggs and cream, and feed sales.

Graner became sole owner of the Hi-Way Hatchery in 1949, and Nissen continued in the poultry business in the old Puck building at the north end of Main Street, near Front Street. Glen Jensen and Gerald Schroeder bought shares in the business in 1955. The three-way partnership continued a year, when Nissens closed and Jensen and Schroeder formed J & S Feed Service.

Rix Produce was destroyed by a fire in the mid-1950s, and the city hall building stands there now. After his building burned, Lloyd Rix moved into a building at the Dultmeier plant, continuning there several years. In the early 1960s, John Frees bought the Rix business, and a short time later built the building on Center Street which is now used as a school bus garage. The business was called Johnnie's Feed & Supply, and he sold chicks and Wayne feeds and bought cream and eggs. The business was discontinued in 1965 when Frees became clerk of the City of Manning.

The Merlin Schroeder family opened the Schroeder Farm Store on the west side of the Priebe building in 1960. They sold feed and baby chicks, and bought eggs and poultry from the farmers. Merlin also had an egg route twice a week. The business was discontinued after a fire destroyed the building in 1967; Schroeder later opened a feed and seed store.

When Highway 141 was widened in 1961, Graner merged the Hi-Way Hatchery with Glen's Hatchery, which was opened in 1959 by Glen Kusel. The business was renamed the G & R Hatchery, and was located east on Highway 141 in the Bunz building, which was earlier the Preibe Hatchery and then the Kusel Hatchery.

G & R had the last hatching operation in Manning, which ended in 1968. The firm remained in the feed sales business; in 1971, the partnership was dissolved. Kusel opened his Dozer Service, and Graner continued to operate as the G & R Hatchery. He moved the business to his acreage northeast of town in 1973.

Eustace Lake's feed truck, in front of the Opera House.

Manning Natural Gas.