It seems I never have any time to work on my own family history/genealogy but while looking for more old Manning obituaries, I just now noticed I don't have my great-grandfather, August Grau's obituary. I think I have all of the other obits for this family and asked Connie to see if she can find August's obit but to no avail - so far.

But she found other old articles and information about August and the Grau family and here is an interesting article I was aware of but had never fully studied. I knew some of the stories but this gives more insight into my family ancestry - the article was featured in the Manning Monitor during the 1956 Diamond Jubilee.

Fortunately, I listened to and visited with the older generation family members (including hundreds of other non-related old timers) when they were living, so I'm able to add to this story and also since I have the immense Manning historical database, I can add visuals to this feature.

Now most Manning Pioneer families had similar situations and stories to tell but sadly, most of that history has been lost over time, and why I still try to get people to bring me any old family history, scrapbooks, memorabilia, documents, etc. so I can scan them and preserve them in the Manning database.

Manning Monitor, August 16, 1956
The 75th Diamond Jubilee Celebration
Detlef Graus Came Here In Two Prairie Schooners
One of the earliest settlers in this vicinity was Detlef Grau and his wife, Sophia (Sachleben) who immigrated to America in a sail ship the year 1867. The voyage took seven weeks before landing at New York.
A few years later the family crossed the state of Iowa in two prairie schooners when there were no roads or bridges and the Prairie grass as high as the wagon wheels. They first settled on a farm northwest of Manning (near Westside) when the site which Manning occupies was still Prairie land; and in 1875 they bought a farm northeast of Manning which had been foreclosed for non-payment of taxes.
Detlef Grau helped construct their first rural school (Ewoldt No. 2 - later Amos Kusel attended) in which his children were educated, one of them was August Grau. In later years, August Grau's daughter, now Clara (Mrs. Frank) Cox, taught in the same school and a generation after that his granddaughter, now Mrs. Rose Collins, taught there also.
August Grau, son of Detlef Grau, related many times how he, when a boy, herded his father's cattle in this locality's Prairie (Note: this was later the big hill on the farm of Amos & Dorothy Kusel directly on the northern edge of Manning - one January it was so warm that August herded the cattle bare-footed - as told to David Kusel by his great-uncle Herman Grau), staying for three days at a time, sleeping in a little shack and eating out of a lunch basket with only a gun for protection. Whenever a pack of wolves came howling at night he would shoot to run them off. Since there were no roads when Detlef Grau settled here he remembered the surveyors marking this part of Iowa into sections and designating the roads by placing a large boulder in the middle of the road intersections to denote the crossroads. His surveyor's instrument was a wagon wheel.
All of this historical interest is quite a contrast to the system of modern education and the present day highways with its high powered automobiles and the mechanized age.
Herman Grau, Mrs. August (Ida) Kusel, Sophia Rothfolk, Mrs. Elmer (Laura), and Mrs. Frank (Clara) Cox are grandchildren of Detlef Grau and the children of the late August and Mary (Hansen) Grau, all living in or near Manning.


Page 13 of the 2009 Manning Schools history book

Ewoldt No. 2 location shown below

1923 Ewoldt/Warren Township map


School at original location


School at 104 Ann Street - moved into Manning by Henry & Elmer Mueller to use as a garage.
Now owned by the Chris Behrens family

I hope someday that this school building can be moved to the Heritage Park to be restored and preserved there.
While there are still 2 other intact country schools from this area, they aren't in as good a shape.

Doings In Manning Real Estate
Manning Monitor
August Grau bought the R. Ryle farm last Saturday for which he paid the snug sum of $108 per acre. This is an elegant farm only two miles from town and well improved. Mr. Grau expects to make this his future home and takes possession next March. He has an elegant farm, where he now resides, of 200 acres but it was a little far away from Manning. He will get a good tenant for this as he says it is not for sale.
Carroll Times, September 20, 1906

MANNING
Items of Interest Gathered by Our Local Correspondent.
The Frank Stribe property in the northeast part of town was purchased last week by August Grau who will move to town in the spring. The sale was made through P.H. Jones.
Carroll Sentinel, June 20, 1911

Detlef Grau 90th birthday 1923
Back: Elmer Grau, Albert Grau (Henry's), Carl Detlef Grau, Peter Moeller, Charley Pfoltner, Henry Flenker, man from Arcadia
Middle: Emil Grau, Henry Grau, Detlef Grau, Hugo Grau (Henry's), Jim Rothfolk
Front: August Kusel, Detlef Grau, Henry Grau Jr. (Henry's), Herman Grau
Lower left front: Walter Grau (Hugo's son)

Back: Sophia Graul (possibly Gaul? Lena Flenker's sister), Mathilda Mohr Grau (Claus Henry), Sophie Grau Rothfolk (Jim), Mary Hansen Grau (August), Laura Grau Alwill (Elmer), Amanda Grau Moeller (Pete), Clara Grau Cox (Frank), Ida Grau Kusel (August), Housekeeper Christina Lage
Middle: Ida Graul (or Gaul ?), Lena Flenker, Detlef Grau, Anna (Waller) Grau (Hugo)
Front: Emma Grau Pfoltner, Martha (Rudnick) Grau (Henry), Emma Rudnick Grau (Albert) holding baby Lester Grau

Back: Hilda Moeller, Amanda Grau Martens, Walter Grau, Eunice Grau Ahrendsen, Elda Rothfolk Barten
Front: Florence Pfoltner Flenker, Bernice Grau Crouch, Hugo Peter Grau Jr.

I'm currently working on my cousin, Jon Ahrendsen's suitcase full of old pix and family history.
Unfortunately, like most old family collections I've worked on over the decades, most of the older pix are not identified.
I once had dozens of old timers to go to for help with IDs like Art Rix, but now they are all gone and for the most part, all of the old Manning pix left will go unidentified forever - UNLESS some distant relative from out of town has the same or similar picture that is identified. BUT then they will have to stumble on my web page to see that I have many old Manning family pix and then they'll have to make an effort to contact me, but sadly, it has mostly been crickets all of these decades.
BUT I still want to scan any/all old Manning connected pix, even if they aren't identified. At least I'll have them in the Manning database to show our Pioneer history.


Suitcase full of old pix and other family history and memorabilia


Aerial view of the old Hugo & Eunice (Grau) Ahrendsen & family farm.

All unknown people in the pix below - but most are probably related to the Ahrendsen family in some way - also some Grau family members...

Three men drinking
German writing on back
A fellow from Hamburg, Germany contacted me recently and provided the translation below.

Diese Bilder
wurden genommen
von mein Freund der mit
mir auf ein Bild ist
von meinen Geburtstag
translation: These pictures were taken by my friend who is with me in a picture from my birthday


S.E. Goreham was one of many studios in Manning during this era.
But Blocker and Lyden were the two main studios.


Group drinking pictures like this were very common and I have quite a few scanned from various family collections.


C.G. Hansen was one of several local photographers


Sadly this style of print was very susceptible to scratching, scuffing, and damage. I have yet to find one picture of this type that doesn't have a lot of scratches.
Of course most pictures have been poorly handled and cared for over the decades.


"Foxing," splotching, molding are very active, along with the acid in the paper that are slowly destroying our old pix.

Digitally repaired

Eventually the deterioration gets so bad that it will be way too time-consuming to try to digitally restore these old pix and eventually they will fall into pieces - back to wood pulp dust.

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