Manning,+Oregon

Here are some links on the history of Manning:


 * Wikipedia: Manning, OR
 * Washington County Heritage Online: Manning
 * History from Van Natta Forestry: Manning, Oregon

=Essay=

"Buxton-Manning" by Ida M. McCann. //Centennial History of Washington County, Oregon// (1973).

"A century ago this community was covered by a vast forest untouched by any axe. In 1840 a man named Sam Cooter built a small mill on a creek which empties into West Dairy Creek a quarter of a mile south of Manning. The creek provided the water-power. One can still follow the creek upward and find rotting remains of Cooter's Mill.

Buxton was named after the Buxton family, who came in 1884. The first school was built in 1888, and was open three months of each year.

The first school at Manning was built about the same time, and was built of 1 x 12 boards standing vertical, with battened cracks. This building was smashed by a falling tree.

The surrounding land was owned by Martin Manning and was a donation land claim. Like Cooter, Manning built a mill run by water-power. Later Manning and Thornburg had a mill on what is now the Benefiel place.

The only transportation to the outside world was by lumber wagons over rough roads which were impassible in winter.

In 1906, work was started on a Southern Pacific line from Portland to Tillamook. Overnight, sawmills and logging camps sprang up. In 1907, McFarlan Bros. purchased the Manning-Thornburg mill and moved it to the present site of Manning. Then came the Panic of 1907 and work stopped on the railroad. It was finished at last in 1912 and the golden spike was driven at Timber.

The first store was built at Manning in 1912 and a post office was installed in it. Before this the mail had been brought from Greenville, two miles south of Banks, by horseback to the Yates farm (now Niel Baker's). Later the Benefiels looked after the mail for a time before 1912.

In 1918 the McFarlan mill burned, and since then several mills have occupied the site.

The year 1920 saw a second railroad pass through Manning to Keasey, opening up more tracts of timber and resulting in a large mill town at Vernonia.

In 1939 the Sunset highway was built through Manning, but it was not put through to the coast until after World War II.

Today the timber is gone. The land is being purchased by big timber companies for reforestation. Perhaps in another hundred years the highway and railroad will be only tunnels in an unbroken forest, like the one in 1859."