History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Edwin Manning
[Edwin Manning]
EDWIN MANNING, one of the pioneer settlers in Iowa, was born February 8, 1810, at South Coventry, Connecticut He was educated in the common schools, and at the age of sixteen became clerk in a store. In 1836 he emigrated to the "Black Hawk Purchase," first stopping at Fort Madison. In 1837, with two companions, he went up the Des Moines River to Horse Shoe Bend, where a claim was made and a town platted, which became Keosauqua. In 1839 Mr. Manning opened a store in a log cabin he had erected in his new town. In 1842 he built the first brick court house in the Territory, which was still standing in 1900. He ran the first loaded steamboat from St. Louis to Des Moines in 1843. The next year he built the first flat boat that floated down the Des Moines River. In 1856 he was appointed by the Governor Commissioner of the Des Moines River Improvement, serving two years. He was an enterprising business man and for half a century was closely identified with many of the most important interests of that part of the State, accumulating a large fortune.