February 3 progress on waterslide


History repeats
more often than most people realize.

In 1918, the world dealt with the Spanish Influenza Pandemic which has been estimated on the high end to have killed up to 100,000,000 people worldwide and infected over 1/3 of the people...in a population of 1.8 billion people.
Now in 2021, the world is faced with the China Covid-19 Pandemic, with a population of 7.8 billion people and 2.3 million deaths to date.
What was/is going on in Manning during these 2 pandemics?

Brand new high school fall of 1918.

Summer of 1918


Water slide sections arrived February 1, 2021


Galvanized steel columns

Sometime in the 1990s, I was wondering what happened to the corner stones for the 1907 & 1918 schools.
I saw Virgil Reid one day and asked him if he knew anything about the cornerstones...he knew exactly where they were. They were in the recessed area of the current school boiler room, hidden behind stuff along the north wall...so I immediately headed out to the school and sure enough, there both cornerstones were hiding behind some other things.
The janitors told me that the only reason why they were not already thrown out is because they couldn't figure out how to lift them out.

So fast forward to 2015, after bugging the city crew about getting them out of there with the hopes they will be placed somewhere on display on the Rec Center property someday.


The first cornerstone lifted out was the 1918 stone.

Herman Hinz, Phil Zerwas, Chris Johnson, Jens Sinn, John Lewis, Peter Jones
An arrow is pointing to the location of this stone on the 1918 school picture above.


The second cornerstone lifted out was the 1907 stone which was almost twice the weight.


Gustav Rober, Claus Reinholdt, Andrew Resner, John Lewis, Albert Puck, Orrin Emmons, Julius Brunnier


Arrow points to 1907 Cornerstone

January 17, 1918
NOTICE OF PARENTS

On account of the crowded condition of the schools, it has been decided by the School Board that no new class will be admitted to the Kindergarten department at the beginning of the next semester.
The board was reluctant to reach this decision but could find no other solution of the problem. It is their hope that the patrons of the school will bear with them until the school house is finished when they will be in position to take care of all who wish to come.

October 31, 1918
SCHOOL OPENS MONDAY

The public schools will open Monday after being closed three weeks.
There will be church services in the churches next Sunday. While the epidemic of Influenza was quite prevalent in and about Manning, it seems to have run its course and not many new cases are expected.
While the board has no authority to compel vaccination for the Influenza, some of the members are of the opinion that the same will help here as it has in other places, and it is left to the parents to have their children vaccinated.