As our elected officials in Washington were preparing to issue the Prohibition Amendment, a train carrying a tank car full of wine was scheduled to pass through Manning. Just west of town the train derailed, and the wine car broke open.

The sounds of the crash were heard in town, and townspeople rushed to see if aid could be given. They discovered the wine spurting from the tank car; one of the men went back to Manning, and shouted the news. "There's a lot out there that can be saved!" he cried.

A steady stream of people, laden with pots and pans and buckets, began to run down Third Street and through the pastures to the scene of the mishap. Cream cans in front of the creamery were borrowed -- no time to ask permission -- by the excited crowd.

People filled their pots and their bellies, and by the time railroad officials arrived, a number were quite intoxicated. Orders were given to move the crowd away from the wreckage, with a fence at the bottom of the embankment established as the "no admission" line. The wine continued to trickle down the railroad banks, and before long, the buckets and pans were again filled; some dispensed with the containers, and laid on their backs to catch the flow in their wide-open mouths.

As night approached, some of the people began to sneak over the fence, and the railroad officials put armed guards around the perimeter. The guards were instructed to shoot if necessary, and warning shots fired over the heads of the mob continued throughout the night.

For three days, the guards stood their ground, while the more persistent in the crowd stood theirs. Fights were frequent, and one of the mob -- an outsider, it is claimed -- got his head split open.

Sanity and peace in the community was eventually restored, as the derailed train was uprighted on the tracks and limped out of town.

Due north of the end of Mannng's Main street was a farm place. The barn is still there. The Long family lived there and Mr. Long had a kiln and made bricks. They were not as hard as the modern brick, but many of them were used in the basements and some walls of the buildings on Main street. Clay for these bricks was hauled from southwest of Manning because of its better consistency.