My Genealogy Hound

HON. EDGAR STUART MANNING, son of Harry and Margaret (Beistline) Manning, was born at Oakville, Cumberland county, on Oct. 8, 1865. He grew to manhood in his native village and was educated in its public schools and in the Cumberland Valley State Normal School at Shippensburg. Besides these scholastic advantages he at the same time received a business training of a most practical kind. As soon as it was safe for him to go outside the front yard gate he was given the range of his father’s office and warehouse, where he whiled away the leisure hours of his early years as in a playhouse, drinking in a knowledge of his father’s business in the way of entertainment and recreation. By the same natural and easy gradation came the practice, and by the time he reached the years of young manhood he, by taste, habit, education and inheritance, was a grain and forwarding merchant, and in every sense qualified to share the cares and responsibilities of his father. He was given an interest in the business, the firm becoming H. Manning & Son. Manning & Son remained at Oakville until 1891, when they sold out with a view of finding a field in which they could operate upon a more extensive scale. In 1892 they located at Newville, where they purchased property and erected a large warehouse and elevator and the business has continued in successful operation ever since. Although the senior member of the firm died in 1900 the firm name is still H. Manning & Son, and has earned a permanent and honorable place in the business history of the Cumberland Valley.

In politics as in case of business the son followed in the footsteps of the father. He early espoused the cause of Democracy, promptly took rank with its most zealous young workers and when his father died was nominated for the vacancy in the lower house of the State Legislature caused by his death. Owing to the peculiar condition of State politics at the time extraordinary efforts were made to elect a Republican, yet Mr. Manning won by the phenomenal majority of 1998 votes, the largest any candidate of either party received in the county in many years. His public services began immediately and under exacting circumstances. During his first term he served upon the committees on Elections, Corporations, Law and Order and Judiciary Local, and was one of the most conspicuous young members of the House, notwithstanding the fact that it was his first term in the body. The following year he was re-nominated and re-elected and in his second term served upon the following committees: Corporations, Education, Iron and Coal, Railroads and Judiciary Local. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Commission of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis; he also acted as a substitute for Commissioner George R. Dixon, at the Charleston Exposition in 1901. He frequently takes extensive excursions during summer and has visited Colorado, California, Oregon, the Puget Sound country, Canada and other scenic sections. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order, being a member of Cumberland Star Lodge, No. 197, F. & A. M., St. John’s Chapter, No. 171, R. A. M., and St. John’s Commandery, No. 8, K. T., of which he is a Past Commander, serving in the year 1902; Harrisburg Consistory, A. A. S. R., and Zembo Temple, Mystic Shrine. Harrisburg, Pa.; he has attained to the thirty-second degree. He is also a member of Lodge No. 163, I. O. O. F., of Newville, Pa.; Camp No. 413, P. O. S. of A., and Big Spring Council, No. 1910, Royal Arcanum, and is District Deputy Grand Regent of the 32d district, Royal Arcanum, of Pennsylvania.