Eli Manning, widely known and admired in Lucas County at century ago, turned up in a post entitled "The Glorious 4th 1889 here & there in Lucas County" the other day --- as the driver of a four-mule hitch hauling farm equipment in the Independence Day parade of that year.
When he died 30 years later, on June 23, 1919, Eli was the subject of one of the more interesting obituaries published in Chariton newspapers --- both The Leader and The Herald-Patriot. At the time the two newspapers were separately owned but published on the same day, in this instance Thursday, June 26, 1919.
While Eli didn't write his own obituary, he did as death approached write a lengthy account of his life that was adapted for the newspapers by another author, perhaps the Rev. E.W. Curtis, a major player at his Masonic funeral service.
Here's the Herald-Patriot version, which is the longer of the two and more detailed:
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| Eli Manning |
Many friends throughout the county and southern Iowa will learn with sincere sorrow of the death of Eli Manning, which occurred on Monday forenoon, June 23, 1919, at the age of 73 years, 3 months and 11 days, after an extended illness with heart trouble. Funeral services, which will be conducted by Rev. E.W. Curtis, of the United Brethren church, under the auspices of the Masonic order, will be held at the home of his nephews, Leonard and Frank Manning, this afternoon at 2 o'clock, after which the remains will be laid to rest in the Chariton cemetery.
Eli Manning was born in Guilford township, Winnebago county, Illinois, on March 13, 1846. He was the youngest of nine children born to Joseph J. and Catharine Louisa Manning (nee Swart). His father was of Irish-English-French blood, and his mother, Holland and German. His parents and grandparents were born in New York state, afterward moving to near London, Canada, West, where his parents were married and where his sisters and brothers were born. They removed to Rockford, Ill., about the time that lead mining developed in Galena, his father having loaded all his belongings on one wagon, and with a small drove of sheep, a good team and two cows they made the trip overland, crossing into the United States at Detroit. There they met Horace Greeley, at that time editor of the "Log Cabin," afterwards founder of the "New York Tribune." He was making his way for the first time to the great middle west and was persuading the young men to go west and grow up with the country. From Detroit to Rockford he was in the Manning camp nearly every day and night. On this Rockford farm, Eli Manning was born, and from his earliest recollection up to his twelfth year, Greeley sent the "Log Cabin" or the "Tribune" to the Manning family free of cost.
His father died when Eli was five years old, and when he was twelve years of age he quit school and began working for neighboring farmers, receiving from $8:33 to $10 per month, boarding at home and attending school four months of the year. At fourteen he took a year's course in the academy at Rockford under Prof. Monson, who was a southerner but had been invited to leave the South on account of his northern sympathies.
There he assisted a neighbor to drive a herd of 2,500 sheep to Pea Ridge, Butler county, Iowa, where he remained and herded them on the open range until the close of the grazing season. That fall he secured a school to teach near Hampton, Franklin county. He has said many times that he had older and better pupils in the classes than himself, and he sat up nights and committed the lessons to memory so that he could impart them to the pupils next day. That winter's teaching was the best schooling he ever had.
The following spring he went to Chicago and took a position as bookkeeper. This was during the Civil war. He remained in Chicago for five years, and during that time was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, but finally landed on the north side of the river, turning a fanning mill for an Irishman and a Jew, trying to make good No. 2 wheat out of old stump tail at $1.50 per day.
Later he went to Marinette, Wisconsin, in the interest of Col. Stafford, collector of the port at Chicago, who owned a big mill on the Menominee river. Here he fed a big engine giving power to a mill which employed 500 men night and day, with saw dust and green slabs. It was quite an active and wide awake work that he performed for six months.
He was then summoned to Chicago, where he was tendered a position with Lake, Clark & Co., sewer builders and contractors, as time keeper and bookkeeper, and had charge of the team work, diggers and dumpers while the first tunnel under the Chicago river was constructed. He stayed with the company until the coffer dam was put in and taken out, no accident occurring nor ships delayed, and when the city paid the company, Mr. Charles B. Farwell, a member of said company, took Eli to his wholesale clothing store and presented him with a complete fine new outfit of clothing.
He brought three lots on Cottage Grove avenue and did some real estate, grain and commission business. Then he and his brother, Joseph, went to Mercer county, Ill., and conducted elevators at Aledo and Viola. There they remained about three years, buying and shipping hogs, grain and flour. Joseph's health failed him, and they disposed of their business and in the spring of 1871 came to Chariton in May, where they engaged in the grocery business.
They were joined here by their brother, Leonard O. Manning, who had served his country during the war and was first lieutenant of Co. H, 58th Illinois, also acting quartermaster and commissary of the regiment, ranking as major at the end of his five years' service. Eli Manning's mother was a cousin of Millard Fillmore, who was president of the United States.
The life of Eli Manning was as well known to the older citizens of Chariton as it was to himself. He came here when a young man, full of life and hope. He says he made his mistakes and knew it. He took great pride in Chariton, and worked hard for whatever would be best for the town. If a church was being built in the city or county, very few of them were built without his contributing from $5 to $25, although he was not a member of any of them. In the early prospecting for coal, few holes were sunk that had less than $25 to $50 of his money in them. In the lyceum and Chautauqua days, his time and money were liberally given to secure the best and most instructive talent, and the same can be said of clean sports.
In a business way he worked hard to bring about a closer touch between the farmers and citizens of the town. He gave freely of his time to the public, serving as a member of the school board and of the city council, and also was long a member of the volunteer fire department. He served faithfully well as sheriff of Lucas county for six years. For two years he worked with Mr. Haven, securing options on thousands of acres of land, which many years later were opened at Mines Nos. 1, 2 and 3. He was elected to the legislature, where he worked with energy, and especially sought to develop the mining and shipping interests of southern Iowa. He worked up the right of way and secured all the money that it cost to make the survey and secure the right from the state to build the Chariton, Knoxville & Southern railroad, which had it been built would have meant much for this section of the state. S.H. Mallory, of this city, and Jefferson K. Polk, of Des Moines, were back of this proposition and the deaths of both put an end to the plan.
Eli Manning was married Nov 18, 1879, to Miss Jessie Wilson and to them were born Robert, of Pocatello, Idaho; Charles, of Chicago; and Mill, who died about seventeen years ago at the age of nineteen years. For nearly twenty years, his wife has been seriously afflicted, and since 1914, Eli made his home with his nephews, J. L. and Frank Manning, and their aunt, Miss McPherson, who have made it a real home to him, and their kind hands ministered to him to the last.
For a year or more, his health had been very frail and he knew that life could continue but a short time. Rev. E.W. Curtis says of him, "He talked with me freely, he came to the preaching services, and told me that he wished me to bear the message at his funeral. I visited with him in the home when life was feeble, and we knelt together while I prayed in his behalf, and deep emotion filled our souls." He wrote a sketch of his own life of more than a thousand words, from which these facts are gleaned. He was energetic, ambitious and full of determination to the last. His many kindred and friends will long remember the face and form and words and deeds of Eli Manning.
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The mental illness of his wife, Jessie, was among the sorrows of Eli's life, covered only briefly in the obituary. Jessie, by all accounts a brilliant woman, had been in custodial care since the late 1890's, first in a state institution at Clarinda and later, after Eli's death, at the Lucas County Home. She died at the county home, age 92, on Aug. 30, 1947. Although buried next to Eli in the Chariton Cemetery, her death date never was inscribed on the tombstone they share. You can read more about Jessie here, in a post entitled "Half a life: The Case of Jessie Wilson Manning."
Their son, Millard A. Manning, died at the age of 19 on Dec. 5, 1901, of typhoid. He is buried with his parents on the family lot in the Chariton Cemetery.
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