Since we last wrote to you in the 2006 Alumni newsletter the school history book committee and other volunteers have made tremendous strides on this unique history book project. Thousands of hours of work have already been spent transcribing student names, interviewing people, gathering and scanning pictures & history into the computer, having meetings, putting articles in the newspapers, and on and on. Even with all of these projects and volunteer hours we have only "scratched the surface" of the history of Manning country and town schools.

So we need your help! The following pictures and information will give you an idea of the things we are looking for about our school history and how we really need your cooperation and help in making this school history book "one of a kind."

Thomas MacDonald-Williams, husband of Sharon (Grimm) MHS 1966, has been working hard to design a school coin for the years 1879 to 2009. 1879 is the first year we can document a township school in what is present day Manning city limits and 2008 will be the last year of the "Manning Bulldogs" with 2009 being the first year of the IKM-Manning Wolves. Tom has also painted several water-color pictures of previous schools in Manning and designed a school logo for us which is shown below.

Making someone's day!
I know it can be a pain to dig out your old scrapbooks and photos and send them to our group but this is the only way we'll be able to get a broad range of school history documented. Each time I place a school picture in the newspaper or on my web page someone is touched by seeing a picture of themselves, a parent or other relative they had not seen before. It brings back fond memories of Manning country and town school. So please take some time to pick out a few school pictures and send those originals to me to scan. They will be returned to you ASAP. I recently purchased a scanner that will scan the old large style format negatives plus the newer style negatives and slides so if you have old negatives or slides of school history you can send them too.

If you are adept at scanning please scan color photos in millions of colors and non-color photos in gray-scale. The publisher needs 300dpi digital images and we prefer you make the images 10 to 12 inch final size. Please take note to adjust the contrast and brightness in the pre-scan mode to reduce the bright, washed out, or dark faces. All of these adjustments are really necessary to get the best possible print in the book.

Ruth (Schmidt) Eich MHS 1952 married Allan Eich MHS 1953. They presently live in Manning and Ruth, who also taught at Manning, had this 1964-65 Home Ec picture. She did not remember the students in the picture. So from a guess by Jean (Graner) Kusel MHS 1965, I sent a copy by e-mail to Darlis Dammann MHS 1969. Darlis told me that her sister, Diane Dammann MHS 1966, was in it.

These are the e-mail responses from Diane & Darlis about the picture which I believe made their day - "Boy, does this bring back memories! Diane (Dammann) Cross" and "Dave thanks for sending me this picture. It is also always great to see the old pictures in the newspaper. I've kept several of my dad and mom that you have published. Darlis (Dammann) Wambold"

This Home Ec room was located in the old grade school on Second Street - in the basement on the right (northeast) side. The sewing room was on the northwest side. The gym was on the southwest side. The kitchen was on the southeast side.

A Rare Find
To me, all older photos and recorded history of our community are precious but usually it is difficult to identify the people in the pictures and when it was taken. Sometimes I spend days running around town showing a picture to different people to get proper identifications. While collecting some pictures from Ruth Ohde MHS 1958 she showed me this unbelievably rare photo and best of all everyone was identified and information was written on the back.

Country School history
I have found that one of the more popular subjects is our country school history. The townships that will be included for the country school history section are Lincoln in Audubon County; Jefferson in Shelby; Iowa & Hayes in Crawford; Washington, Ewoldt, & Eden in Carroll County. A list of students, teachers, and school directors' names has been started and will also be included with each individual country school in the book.

Note: the sign says BOTNA - 65.8 miles to Omaha and 443 miles to Chicago.

Martha Vetter & Paul Vetter had this 1915 picture of Washington No. 1 Carroll County country school.

Fun memory about the German/English quandary that country school teachers and their students went through during the early 1900s. Frank Vetter (older brother of Martha & Paul) only spoke German when he started country school. His teacher, Maggie Werder (aunt to Helene Heithoff), wanted to keep Frank after school to help him start learning English. Frank objected so much after school that he bit Maggie on the arm and jumped out the school window to get away. For years Frank was afraid of Maggie. Maggie never told anyone how she hurt her arm and it wasn't until years later that Frank told everyone that he bit Maggie on the arm.

FUN pictures!
It is always nice to receive those "official" team & group photos taken by professionals but we also want your "fun" snapshots that you took when you were in school. Marilyn (Vennink) Pfannkuch MHS 1961 married Keith Pfannkuch MHS 1959 and they provided this picture of the 1959 Jr-Sr Prom. It is actually a color photo and one goal we have is to raise enough sponsorship money so we can have color photos printed in the history book. Converting color photos to gray-scale and printing them in black & white tends to lose quality in the process.

This homecoming parade picture shows Dr. John Hornberger in his Shriner car. I'm sure most of you remember seeing this car jumping around in the school parades. Lyle "Red" Arp MHS 1940 is on the passenger side.

Darlys (Vollstedt) Bean brought a whole box-full of scrap books and pictures to me several months ago to go through and scan. This is just one of many fun pictures she has which shows a boys' quartet from 1953-54.

Allen Rix, Lyle Frahm, Roland Valentine, Duane Monson

School Employees
Most of us remember the school teachers and the positive impact they had on our lives but we all too often forget the other members of the school staff who were just as important for our education. Marlene (Hargens) Zimmerman MHS 1953 has really been helpful with the Manning school project. She had this picture of the school cooks who made the meals at the old grade school. During this part of our school history the high school students were bussed or could walk from the high school near Highway 141 to eat their noon meals at the grade school.

Nola Kuhl, Maurine Barten, Lavina Dethlefs

School teacher histories are a priority for us. We are looking for country and town school teacher histories and need your help. More than likely you had a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle or other close relative teach school. The next fact of life is most of these teachers have passed away. We need your help in finding pictures and digging up some information about their teaching careers. Maybe there is an article that you have from a newspaper. Remember - many teachers who taught in Manning moved away and then retired in another community where a write-up may have been printed in their local newspaper. This is Sharon Grimm's teaching history to give you an idea of what information we are looking for to use in the history book.

Sharon (Willesen) Grimm 1965-1968

In 1968 Sharon decided to no longer be a full-time teacher but did substitute teaching in elementary grades.
Sharon is presently living with her husband Dennis on their farm near Gray, IA. Dennis is semi-retired but still farms. Their three sons Kevin, Daniel, and Kenneth live nearby which gives them the opportunity to see their five grandchildren quite often.

Artistic images
Besides pictures we are looking for images that students drew in school. Darrel Baker MHS 1969 drew cartoons for the "Paw Prints" school paper and this one appeared in the Manning Monitor December 26, 1968.

FFA Chapter
One area that we have very few pictures and information about is for the Manning FFA Chapter. Ray Christensen MHS 1952 has this 1949-50 Juniors & Sophomores FFA picture.

Band
This is a 1953 band picture of Ann (Littell) Grau. She is a "former member" of the class of 1955. She married Thomas Grau MHS 1955. Ann's brother, Roger, was a former member of the class of 1956. Their father, David R. Littell was a Manning Superintendent and his secretary was Lettie Fuss.

"Former Students"
For 6 months Marilyn Hansen, Sue Behrens, Theda Wiese, Jean Stadtlander, Carol Hagedorn, Judy Joens, and Julie Hagedorn transcribed the names of Manning students from the school record books. For various reasons these students did not graduate from Manning but attended at least 1 year at Manning. Even though Ann and her brother Roger Littell did not graduate from Manning High School they were also an important part of our school history. This is why we decided to make a list of these students and place them in a "former students" section in the book. This list covers 1901 to 2007 and at this point we have 3970 Former Students recorded. 4064 students have graduated at Manning from 1888-2007. The largest class occurred during the end of the "Baby Boom" era with 73 graduates in 1972.

Virginia (Dammann) Johnson MHS 1956 shared her school pictures and this next picture is of Deloris Schroeder taken in 1951. Deloris is a former student and below are the "former students" of 1958.

Where are the pictures from your era???
You may have noticed there are very few pictures from the time frame of 1960s to 2000s. This is because we've had very little information and pictures turned in up to this point from these "Young Bullpups." Beth Opperman MHS 1984 was gracious enough to drop off her school scrapbooks and this is Beth in her cheerleader uniform.

Partners
In order to publish a book of this magnitude including color photos we will need financial support from various sources. Laurie Stein, Wava Lorenzen, Melissa Pfannkuch, and Jennifer Rowedder will be selling Ads for the school history book similar to the Quasqui history book. Dr. Robert Vonnahme will be seeking corporate sponsors starting in October. There will be 2 sponsorship levels: $500 and $250 and Robert will have the rest of the details for anyone interested.

Jean Stadtlander and Jill Saunders have been busy working on a school history flag. It will be similar to the Manning Quasqui flag that was sold during the 2006 celebration.

This sample image shows the flag design that will have red and black lettering which are the school colors. The old pictures will be in sepia tone and the current pictures in a natural color. There will be pictures of a country school, the first town school built in 1883, the 1907 brick school most of us will remember as the old grade school, the 1918 high school, and the entryways into the current high school and elementary school. Of course there will be a Bulldog in the center and at the bottom of the flag where "Bulldogs" is located on the sample image will be a place for your family or company name.

History book pre-sales
Pre sales of the school history book will start some time in mid 2008. We will announce the date and details in the Manning Monitor and on the web page link below. Please keep in mind that pre-sales of the book are essential. It gives us some extra revenue early on and also helps us determine how many extra books to order for sale at the All-school reunion in June 2010.

History book contact information - web page: http://www.davidkusel.com & e-mail: mhs@davidkusel.com & phone: (712) 653-3259. Mailing addresses: Manning Monitor 411 Main Street Manning, Iowa 51455 or David Kusel 11723 300St Manning, Iowa 51455-8687.