History book of the
Manning School system
1879 to 2009

Due to the success of the 2006 Manning Quasquicentennial History book and the ending of the era of the Manning Bulldogs in 2008 we have decided to publish a history of the Manning area schools. Several Manning area volunteers are already busy collecting school history and pictures. A school history book committee has been formed and will work to gather and edit the data. The history committee will raise funds for this project and work with the Bell Books company to get the book published and ready for sale some time in late 2009 or early 2010 (a 500-page hard-bound book is the goal). This is the same publishing company that the Quasqui history committee worked with and published the 2006 Manning Quasqui history book.

The school system began before the town of Manning was incorporated in 1881 with a township school built around 1879 on the present day Manning Foods grocery store property. The first school constructed in 1883 by the town was a wooden structure shown above and located on Second Street. It was torn down and replaced in 1907 by a brick building that many of us remember as the old grade school.

We are looking for original pictures and information of all kinds that covers Manning school history including the country schools. We are looking for information and pictures on extra curricular activities such as band, choir, school plays, contests, etc. There will also be an "I can remember" section where we'll have personal anecdotal and short stories about your memories of school, classmates, and teachers so please take some time to jot down those memories and send them in.

One area we want to dig deep into and write about are the school employees. We plan on having a section in the book with individual histories and pictures about employees similar to the "Family" section in the Quasqui history book. If you were an employee or know of an employee you could interview for us we would like to hear from you. It will be impossible to contact every past employee (especially those who no longer reside in Manning) so we ask that you write about your time at the Manning schools and an update about where you live now and a little about your family. Maybe your parent or grandparent was a school employee. If possible please write about them and include some pictures and submit that information for the history book.

One project that Gladys Schmidt and Jean (Wiese) Stadtlander are working on is a class list of students who attended Manning schools but moved away before their senior year. How many students do you remember who were in your class but moved away? You will probably be surprised how many students were in your class starting in Kindergarten and then moved away before graduation.

Brian Lage has been recording detailed information on the school's sports history for many years. Snippets of those records were included in the sports section of the 2006 Quasqui book but the complete details along with hundreds of sports photos will be included in the future school book. One goal we have is to determine when the "Bulldog" officially became our mascot. The earliest we know Bulldog was the mascot can be seen in this 1916 picture where a live Bulldog was held by Henry Grelck.

1916 Football team

Back row left to right: Coach Leslie M. Lee, Edwin Dethlefs, E. Wayne Sinclair, Vincent Lyden, Neal Dunnick, Dean Curtis, John Ohde, Ralph Moser, Robert Emmons; Front row: Austin Navin, Henry Weidemann, Ed Gronert, Orlo Schelldorf, Henry Grelck with Bulldog, Roy Lawbaugh, Marvin Meyer, Jay Bingham.

The time-frame for the publication of the school history book is based on 2009 which will be the first year that Manning & IKM students will graduate as Seniors. We want to include a group picture of the last Bulldog senior class in 2008 and the first Manning/IKM Wolves senior class in the history book. So sometime after May of 2009 the book will be sent in for publication. In order to help with distribution and sales of the history book the Alumni Association has decided to set the next all-school reunion for the summer of 2010. A joint effort between the Alumni Association and the history book committee is to contact as many former school employees (including country school) and invite them to this reunion. This reunion will also be a time to say goodbye to the "Bulldogs" era and welcome in the "Wolves" era.

For the next three years articles about school history will be used to promote the school history book and will be placed on page 3 in the Manning Monitor. Ron Colling and the Monitor staff have agreed to work with the history committee in a joint effort to make this book as successful as the 2006 Quasqui history book. Nearly every week there will be promotion of a specific school topic we are looking for information about along with a request for you to do some digging in your albums and scrapbooks. A web page will also be used to promote this project and let former school employees, students, and residents of Manning know that we want to include school information they have. If you have school information and pictures you are willing to share you will find contact information on page 3 of the Manning Monitor or by using this e-mail address shown mhs@davidkusel.com

If we don't take the time to find school information and pictures now and place them in this history book our Bulldog & country school history will probably be lost forever. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN!!!