Mule Kisses

Dan Manning has put together a compilation of stories about his ancestors and himself as each of them have interacted with anything equine. He is nearly as hybridized as the mules he writes about from his great, great grandfathers...one was a Belgian anarchist, one was a Kentucky abolitionist, and one was a missionary in the Indian Nation, to his great grandfathers...one was a teamster who became a hardware-man, and one was a circuit-riding preacher in Missouri. One of his grandfathers grew up in the Ozarks, homesteaded in Oklahoma, and was called to be a Methodist minister in Kansas. The other one was raised in Kansas, attended KU, was a school superintendent, and took over operating his father’s hardware store. Dan Manning loves God, his life, his family, an old gristmill, and mules...but please don’t ask him in what particular order.

Dan R. Manning has written several scholarly works which have appeared in SouthwesternHistorical Quarterly, and Military History of the West. Other articles have appeared in Texas Ranger Dispatch, Missouri Life, Ozarks Mountaineer, American West, Old Mill News, and Farm Collector magazines. Through research and personal experience, Dan has gained knowledge about 19th century grist milling techniques, early agricultural machinery and methods, including the raising and training of draft horses and mules. Dan's most heart-felt project, which he has spent three decades researching and writing, is the biography of John James Dix, his wife's great, great grandfather. Dan was raised in a Central Kansas farming community, and now resides with his wife, Betty, in the Missouri Ozarks.