Edwin C. Manning was born November 7, 1838, at Redford N. Y., the son of Lewis Frederick and Mary Patch Manning. In 1852 his family moved to Iowa.

In 1857, he started surveying for a short time. By 1859 surveying brought Manning to Marysville, Kansas. By December he was working in the newspaper field with R. S. Newell and Peter S. Peters in the publication of The Democratic Platform. He acquired entire control of the paper the following April, and the next month he returned to Jackson county, Iowa, to be married to Miss Delphine Pope, their wedding taking place May 22, 1860.

On July 31 a tornado swept through Marysville, and of the printing office there remained only the old Washington hand press. Having lost his business, he turned his attention to the reading of law while not otherwise employed. This he continued through the winter of 1860-1861.
Due to the Civil War in 1862 Manning enlisted in the Second Kansas, company H. In September, 1862, he was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to an Indian regiment. With this regiment he served until the winter of 1863, when, his health failing, he resigned and returned to Marysville. There he purchased the Big Blue Union. In the summer of 1866 he moved to Manhattan and established the Kansas Radical. During 1868 he traveled through New Mexico, Colorado and western Kansas, having large contracts putting up hay for the government. In 1869 he took up a claim where Winfield now stands, and the next year organized and founded the town of Winfield. Prom 1875 to 1877 he published the Winfield Courier.

He was elected senator from Marshall, Washington, Riley and Eepublic counties in November, 1864. In 1868 he was made secretary of the senate, and in 1871 he was elected a member of the house of representatives from Cowley county, and reflected in 1878. In 1880 Mr. Manning gave up his residence in Kansas and did not return until 1896, when his affairs once more drew him to Winfield, and here he continued to reside with brief intermissions until his death. Mr. Manning was three times married, first to Delphine Pope, who died February 20, 1873. To this union were born four children, two of whom survive: Martha May, born February 6, 1868, at Manhattan, who married W. I. Goodwin at Washington, D. C., in 1894; Ernest Frederick, born at Winfield, March 18, 1871, who married Annie E. Thomas at Bridgeport, Conn., January 8, 1879. On January 3, 1874, Mr. Manning married Margaret J. Foster. To them two children were born, one of whom survives, Maggie Bell, born at Winfield, February 1, 1878, and married William F. Murphy at Kansas City, Mo., April 27, 1899. Mr. Manning's third marriage occurred November 5, 1881, when he married Miss Linnie Hall, a native of Wellfleet, Mass., born May 10, 1846. She died a short time before her husband.