Manly Maderio Meissner

Manly Meissner was born Mar 2, 1897 near Merlin OR [see Adolph and Paul stories]. His parents named him Manly Wadsworth Meissner. He never liked his middle name, so he enlisted in the Navy near the end of World War I as Manly Maderio Meissner (misspelling the name of Madero, a Mexican hero).

His father raised vegetables to sell to the mining camps, and Manly managed to get a third grade education.

His parents often read or heard promises of wonderful life in far away places, so they went to Washington, Texas, Mexico, and finally Panama.

Mexico might have been a great land for truck gardening, if the United States hadn't become involved in the Mexican Revolution. The family lived near Medina, Oaxaca, Mexico from August 1911 until they were forced to leave in April 1914, then moved to Upland CA where Dillie was living. In 1916 Manly moved with the family to Panama, where he worked on the final stages of Panama Canal construction.

In 1922 the Meissner family returned from Panama to Los Angeles, where they attended the Church of God. The family still owned land in Panama near the Costa Rica border, which they thought the Church might use for a mission station, and to start a dairy to help alleviate the natives' dental problems. (See Loretta letters; also Panama email.)

Also attending the Church of God was Hazel Kleeberger. She had studied Spanish and had come to Los Angeles to be a missionary to the Mexican Catholic population. Manly decided that Hazel was the woman he wanted to marry, and he suggested that they could go to Panama together to carry out  his mother's mission plan. But Hazel wasn't convinced; and besides, she (and her mother) considered Manly a bit too rustic. So, in February 1924, Manly went to the barber, put on his best clothes, and had a picture taken by a photographer, which he gave to Hazel. He then left on a train for Iowa where his brother Adolph lived. His plan worked, and a few months later Hazel came to Iowa where they were married on June 11, 1924.

In the fall of 1925, they bought two heifers and went to Panama. Doris was born there in April 1927. But the heifers died, and Manly couldn't support his little family on the land, so he had to get work as straw boss on a railroad construction project some distance away. About a year later, they discovered that another child was on the way, and they decided to return to Los Angeles, where Loren was born in November 1928.

They settled on an acre in Mira Loma CA, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles. Manly excelled in his garden, sold tomatoes, melons, and other vegetables, and worked at whatever jobs he could find, including building several houses. Hazel helped on the little farm and was always active in church work. Manly suffered several bouts of severe depression, but otherwise he was busy and happy, always helping other people. Manly died at age 72 in September 1969; Hazel died at age 90 in June 1982.