Edwin Cassander Manning was born on November 7, 1838, in Redford, Clinton County, New York, which is located in the northern Adirondacks Mountains. His father was Louis Frederick Manning, 1814-1889, the son of French Huguenots. He was born on board ship as his parents sailed to the New World. Louis became an orphan at an early age and endured a harsh young life. Manning would recall him as a man of strong character, who said little but held strong beliefs. He was skilled and able at many tasks. His mother was Mary Patch, 1812-1858, who was descended from an old New England family. She was well educated for her day and had an interest in literature. Manning, like many XIXth Century men, was deeply attached to his mother and after her passing, carried her memory with him to the grave. When he was around three years old, his parents moved to Burlington, Vermont, where his father worked as a skilled glasscutter. The family, of six sons, had no choice but to practice New England frugality.
In March of 1859, when Manning had reached the age of 20 years and four months, his father gave permission for him to leave the Iowa farm and begin life on his own. Along with his brother Cyrenus and a friend, he started out on a westward journey.
It was at this time that Manning was introduced to Kansas, a neighbor having advised him to look the country over, particularly the Kansas River Valley. He and his associates went down to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they crossed over the Missouri River into Kansas Territory. What Manning saw, however, did not impress him as a place to put down stakes. As fortune would have it, he met up with a party of men going to out west to Colorado's gold fields. This party consisted of intelligent, experienced men, who took a liking to the young Manning. Included in the group was Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, a geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains. Of him, Manning later wrote, "In form, habits, manners, moral and mental equipment he was the most perfect man with whom I ever had the pleasure of an acquaintance." In Colorado, Manning and his associates found no riches of gold. As winter approached, their resources gone, they returned home—"back to America," as gold diggers put it. This adventure had been a hard one for Manning but his universe was widened.
As for Manning, he was impressed with what he saw in Cowley County. This is his description:
"…[I]n my travels over Kansas and the west in the past ten year years I had never seen so charming and inviting a country. It bore no scars of civilization...I was overwhelmed with the prospect. I seemed entering upon a new world [emphasis mine]. Springs of pure water in abundance, beautiful streams, immense stretches of fine timber and a wonderful growth of grass everywhere upon the broad bottom lands gently sloping to the adjacent highlands, and plenty of rosin weeds everywhere, a sure indication of rich soil. I then and there resolved that somewhere in that beautiful valley I should find a home."
On June 11, 1869, Manning came to the site of the future Winfield. There were only six or eight settlers in the area; among them were T. B. Ross, James Renfro, and Cliff Wood. He then spent a few days exploring the region.
In October, he brought down a load of goods from Augusta.
He built a 14 x 16 feet log cabin, which was finished in November. The cabin was located near the north end of what is now Manning Street. Manning and Baker had become "frontier traders." on January 13, 1870, Manning organized a town company with himself as president. Three weeks later on January 31, 1870, the Secretary of State granted a charter for the company to operate. Eventually the log store, at the intersection of the Blackfoot trail of the Osage and the north-south trail leading up to the fork of the Walnut River and Timber Creek, became Winfield, Kansas.
