Jacob Warren Manning (1826-1904)

Jacob Warren Manning died on September 16, 1904 at his home in Reading, Massachusetts.  He was born at Bedford, New Hampshire on February 21, 1826, and came of old New England ancestry, being of the eighth generation in descent from William Manning, born in England in 1620, who was an early settler in Cambridge, Mass.  Mr. Manning remained on his parents' farm, engaging in agricultural pursuits and lumbering until he reached the age of twenty-one years.

In March, 1847, at twenty-one years of age, Mr. Manning went to Chelmsford, where he was employed by Amos Carleton in farm, fruit, and nursery work, remaining with him until January, 1848. his wages being fifteen dollars per month. He then came to Reading, remaining until the following spring, when he returned to the farm of Mr. Carleton.

In 1849, he became superintendent of the Winnesemitt Nursery at Chelsea, the proprietor of which was S. W. Cole, the editor of the Boston Cultivator and author of "The American Fruit Book," one of the most valuable works of its kind.  It was in the Cole place that he was connected with the Concord grape.

In subsequent years, he became gardener for John J. May, of Dorchester, Dr. Nathaniel Frothingham of Burlington, and Levi A. Dowley, of Brattleboro, Vermont.  He settled in Reading in 1854, and established his Reading Nursery.  He achieved a wide reputation as importer, raiser, and introducer of large and small fruits and ornamental shrubs and trees, including evergreen trees in variety, prominent among them being the Rocky Mountain blue spruce (I'icea pungens), as early as 1872, his Rocky Mountain evergreens numbering ten different varieties.

The Cutter seedling strawberry was named and introduced by Mr. Manning in the spring of 1850. and caused increased activity among gardeners in the production and improvement of that fruit, as well as an increase in the demand for it. This variety was named after Mr. B. F. Cutter, of Telham, N.H., who gave the stock to Mr. Manning.

Outside of the line for his chosen profession the late Jacob Manning was a thorough going New Englander and took the liveliest interest in the absorbing associations of his location at Reading in the headwaters of the Mystic River—so full of names and people famous in the history of the country. He took us back to the very men who made the history.

Mr. Manning was a staunch believer in associated effort and steadily supported a number of organizations of horticultural interest, being a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, The American Pomological Society, the American Florists and the American Association of Nurserymen, and he conscientiously attended the several meetings of these bodies. In this way he became known to a wide circle of friends.

Mr. Manning married Lydia B. Chandler, of Concord, N. H., in 1858. She survives him, as do five sons, Warren H., J. Woodward, A. Chandler and Benjamin F., of Reading, and William S., of Newark, N. J. 
Mr. Manning's name is closely identified with the introduction of very many plants that have been landmarks in horticultural progress, among them Clethra alnifolia in 1857; the Celtis in 1859; the John Sweet Apple in 1800; Yucca fllamentosa in 1862; and the Granite Beauty apple in 1806

The catalogues of the Reading nursery are interesting to look over at this date, they show what was done so long ago, and are invaluable as indices of the passing events.