Edwin C. Manning, the founder of Winfield, the organizer of the County of Cowley, one of the early editors of the state and thirty or forty years ago a republican leader of Kansas, was born in Redford, Clinton County, New York, November 7, 1838. He was educated both in Vermont and Iowa, taught school at an early age, at the age of nineteen commenced to learn the printer’s trade and in 1859, then about of age, was among the first to start for the Pike’s Peak region in search of gold. He returned a disillusioned young man, but became interested in the publication of the Democratic Platform of Marysville, Kansas, and in May, 1860, obtained full control, raising the republican flag at once. In the first and the second years of the Civil war he served as a minor officer in the Second Kansas Cavalry and the First Indiana, but returnsd to Marysville, purchased the Big Blue Union and published it there until 1866. In that year he moved to Manhattan and established the Kansas Badical, and in 1868 engaged in the Government contracting business in Western Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. In 1869 he took a claim where Winfleld now stands, founding that town in the following year and subsequently organising the County of Rowley. From 1875 to 1877 he published the Winfield Courier and had resided in that place since he platted the original town on his property, Mr. Manning was a member of the Legislature for a number of years. Soon after he returned from the army, then twenty four years of age, he was elected a state senator from Marshall, Washington, Riley and Republic counties, and in 1868 served as secretary of the upper house, while in 1871 and 1878 he was elected to membership in the State House of Representatives.
