Story of W. T. Manning

Imagine just getting a new branch of the B&O railroad in Howard County extended to the Guilford quarries.  Then within a couple of years the retired Chief Engineer of the B&O moves to your neighborhood and embarks on a new business using that new branch railroad quarrying gabbro stone.  Well, that is exactly what happened along the newly extended Patuxent Branch railroad in 1906.  Welcome William Thurston Manning, born February 10, 1856 in Alexandria, VA.

Career

After moving to Maryland with his parents, Mr. Manning he attended Howard County’s Glenwood Academy.  He was already well acquainted with the county as well as the nearby B&O railroad on the Patapsco not far from his school.  He started working for the B&O in 1873 at 17 years old and worked his way from rodman, to an assistant construction engineer, to resident engineer and more.  In 1892 he was the assistant chief engineer of the B&O railroad.(1)

By the time he was Chief Engineer on January 31, 1894, he already had an amazing career that soon became a remarkable one.  In 1889 the Baltimore Sun remarked that some of “his famous achievements are the construction of the Belt tunnel under Baltimore, the Staten Island Terminal of the Baltimore and Ohio, and he was one of the corps of engineers in constructing the Gunpowder tunnel for the Baltimore water works”.  The March 13th article about this retirement continued to note he was the “son of the distinguished engineer, Mr. Charles P. Manning, who was the consulting engineer in the construction of the Baltimore water works” among other distinctions in B&O Railroad engineering. (2)

Retirement

He retired to focus on his “large private interests” including consulting as a railroad engineer and running new businesses. (3)  Right after his retirement he walked his sister down the aisle described as “A Brilliant Wedding” but the mood some somber due to the recent death of their youngest sister, Madge. (4)  Born Margaret Thurston Manning (her mother’s maiden name was Thurston), Madge died on October 21, 1888 in Baltimore at just 24 years of age.  It was later reported that Mr. Manning’s retirement was due to “a severe breakdown and gave up his position” and perhaps his sister’s death was the precipitating event.(5)

In retirement, Mr. Manning would take advantage of his patents on rails and rail car engineering. The Baltimore Sun ran an article on February 6, 1899 on “The Life of a Rail” explaining Mr. Manning’s valuable patent to extend the life of curved rails called the Manning Rail.   In 1903 he formed a freight car company to sell a convertible and weather-protected freight car he patented and the same year he ran for Baltimore City Surveyor.  He lived a very busy and successful life and moved to the Guilford area in 1906 with his wife and two children. (6)

Gabbro Quarries

Manning started his quarry business along the Little Patuxent River in about 1906 leasing land from the Savage Manufacturing Company and purchasing the land occupied by the B.F. Pope Company since 1903. In 1908 W. T. Manning agreed to lease back the land to B.F. Pope Company for crushing stone, charging 2 cents per cubic yard of stone, for a 5 year period until 1913. Apparently, the W. T. Manning Company built a larger stone crushing operation just downstream and decided there was plenty of stone for both companies. At the end of the lease to B.F. Pope he sold the land. (7)

Manning operated the Gabbro quarries for which the old PBR Pratt bridge crossing the Middle Patuxent River was called because of its close proximity to the Gabbro rail siding station. The impressive remains of the stone crusher and elevator, larger than those for the nearby B.F. Pope Stone quarry which also provided hardrock for building roads, are clearly seen along the Wincopin Green Trail (see map and photos). The larger of the Manning gabbro quarries is on the other side of the ridge towards the Middle Patuxent River, and it appears there was a terraced descending pathway/trail either for use by a small railway (an old rail was found near the top of the hill) or for carts to bring the quarried stones down to the crusher and elevator.

Tragedy

The June 9, 1908 issue of the Baltimore Sun reported some disturbing news regarding Mr. Manning.  He almost died from a self-inflicted gunshot to his face but there was no reason for his actions reported, but a June 5th Sun edition reported that 8 years earlier a similar injury happened to another member of his family.  Just three years later, on July 8, 1911, the Sun reported that Mr. Manning’s wife of 14 years, Isabel, and her sister died in a car accident in Colorado.  Their children were visiting with her mother to see family and fortunately Hewson (14) and Isabel (12) were not in the car with their mother. Mr. Manning died of heart troubles at the age of 62 in 1918. (8)

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Sources:

 (1) Baltimore and Ohio Employees Magazine.  1918. William T. Manning, Formerly Chief Engineer of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Dies Suddenly.  P. 9-10. Volume 6, No. 4. August.  Baltimore, Maryland

 (2) The Baltimore, March 13, 1899. “Mr. William T. Manning”

 (3) Baltimore Sun, March 11, 1899. “Mr. Manning to Go”. This article describes a bit about upcoming work.

(4) Annapolis Evening Capital, April 26, 1889. “A Brilliant Wedding”.

(5) The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland), Jul 8, 1911. “Wife’s End Prostrates Him”.

(6) Howard County Circuit Court (Land Records).  Feb 16, 1906. Ernest Geyer & Wife Deed to William T. Manning. WWLC 81, p. 0436.  This 35 acre deed was for land located adjacent to the Little Patuxent River, the Savage Manufacturing Company land, and the westernmost right-of-way of the B&O Railroad, indicating it would have been in the Wincopin area.

(7) Please see the previous story on “The Gabbro Quarries” as well as Between the Pratt Bridges discussion and documentation of the B.F. Pope and W.T. Manning quarries.

(8) Baltimore and Ohio Employees Magazine.  1918. P. 9-10.