In August, 1881, a petition was sent to the postal department in Washington, D.C., asking for a post office in Manning. Later that month, word was received stating that the authorities positively declined to institute one here.

At the time, there were 50 men in the town, and more than 200 farmers nearby, who desired to have their mail sent to Manning, as train service was then running between here and Carroll. A petition was signed by every legal voter and was sent to Congressman Carpenter of this area; soon afterward, officials reported that a post office was soon to be established in Manning.

Seth Smith was appointed the first postmaster; after a week's delay, he received his commission, but no supplies and no route had been designated. After another week's delay, the route was laid from Carroll to Manning. A man was hired to carry the mail, as the train running on the Milwaukee Railroad did not carry mail.

Supplies finally arrived, but still there was a complication. No one was assigned to carry the mail pouch between the Carroll office and the Carroll Railroad Station. Another problem then arose; as the Monitor reported, "Some mysterious, mystified, mucklehead who superintends the route agencies ordered our mail carried to Westside, a little town over in Crawford County, with which we have no direct communication, and which sends out a semi-weekly mail that runs three miles west of us. There, the mail for 600 to 800 people is dropped off twice a week, while we have a daily train into town."

In the meantime, the Manning people were paying a mail carrier $29 a month to carry the mail from Carroll.

Soon the town abolished the mail carrier service, and mail was delivered by rail daily. The 400 call boxes and 20 lock drawers were soon rented and the post office was run in its full capacity.

During its first three months of operation, the post office received $50.50 from box rent, $403.85 from the sale of stamps, and cancelled $346.08 worth of stamps. In October, 1882, the office

handled $1,188.28 in money orders. It was predicted that this office, which the government hesitated in establishing, would handle over $15,000 per year.

Smith continued as postmaster until September 30, 1885; he was succeeded by E.M. Funk. Soon after Funk took office he pulled a surprise.

Until December, 1885, the office had been located in a building in block six. Between 4 p.m. and 7 a.m. December 20, Funk moved the post office and fixtures to a building in a block which he owned just south of the former location. When the businessmen came to get their mail the following morning, they discovered the change. Not even the deputy post master had been made aware of the transfer; he learned of the fact when he came to open the office in the morning.

In June, 1889, a new post office was completed. The mail department was in the center of the floor, and was built in a half octagon shape. There were then two general deliveries, and W.F. Carpenter was serving as postmaster.

Other postmasters have included E.L. Ives, Peter Stephany, Gus Holmberg, Peter Rix, Kathryn Eden (1936-1949), Paul Vollmer (1949-1976), and Ken Fogleman (1976 to present).

Longtime mail carriers included Jake Lage, Jay Bingham, Gus Jensen, John Mohr, S.E. Livingston, Dalton McNutt and Elroy Schrum. McNutt and Schrum retired in 1979 after serving for 40 and 38 years respectively.

The Manning Post Office has had as many as five rural routes and three city routes, with up to 11 employees handling the mail which arrived three times a day. The mail was originally brought in by trains, with sorting handled on the train. Later, a "Highway Post Office" was added; this was a semi-truck which included facilities for sorting the mail as the truck went from town to town.

Today, all incoming and outgoing mail at Manning goes through the "Mail Processing Center" in Carroll. Manning is included on the Star Route betwen Carroll and Kirkman, and mail is dropped off in the morning and picked up at night.

Rural Free Delivery was initiated October 1, 1901, and the rural carriers then averaged 30 miles each. Rural residents along the routes had service to their farm, while those off the route had to go to the nearest established route to pick up their mail, which often resulted in a row of mail boxes along a country intersection.

Today, Manning has two rural carriers, each who travel between 95 and 97 miles a day. All rural residences are included along the designated routes.

November 19, 1965, the post office at Aspinwall, which had been run as a separate facility, became a rural station operated out of Manning. Marie Schroeder has held the job as clerk at Aspinwall since that time.

The current postal building at 216 Main Street in Manning was built in 1960. There are presently seven employees in addition to Postmaster Fogleman: rural carriers Ken Jensen and Walt Lage, sub-rural carrier Bob Wegner; regular city carrier Willie Hoffman; part time city carriers Ron Odendahl and Steven McCollum; and part time city clerk Bob Johnson.

Two changes were foreseen as this book went into print. The "ZIP" Code system, which went into effect in 1963, was being expanded from a five-digit to a nine-digit number. And, first class postage, which was 3 cents in 1881 and had decreased to 2 cents in 1884, was now 15 cents with a movement underway to raise it another 3 to 5 cents.