The Maninger Family

by F. Robert Henderson, Barbara Craig Phelps

This book traces the history of our Maninger family from 1600s Germany to present day America. It contains historical stories and first-person accounts of family events. There's also extensive family tree information on the Maningers and related families. The book is the result of dedicated research and cooperation by several Maninger descendants. Since the 1600s, generations of our Maningers lived in and around the village of Dittwar, Germany. It's a village in a side valley of the Tauber River southwest of Würzburg, Germany. The farms and vineyards sustained the Maningers for generations. By the mid-1800s, economic and military factors contributed to emigration from Europe to the Western Hemisphere. In 1854, Valentine Maninger left Dittwar for America, settling in central Illinois. He plied his trade as a shoemaker, then became a farmer. In Illinois, Valentine met and married Magdalena Smith Neuhauser. Magdalena's family had come from Alsace Lorraine , and had close ties with neighboring families. Those related families lived, worked, married, and worshipped together. In the 1880s, the families moved west together, to Harper County, Kansas. Valentine Maninger's descendants established farms and jobs and businesses in Harper. In the 20th century, succeeding generations found opportunity and work away from Harper. Today the Maninger descendants are widespread.

The Bye Bye Man

by Robert Damon Schneck

2016 · Penguin

The True Story behind the Terrifying Movie Don't think of his name... In 1990, three college students spent a long Wisconsin winter experimenting with a Ouija board; it turned out to be the deadliest mistake of their lives. The board brought them into contact with a psychic serial killer, known only as the Bye Bye Man. Learning his name makes you vulnerable, but thinking about it draws the Bye Bye Man to you. He is a relentless traveler, moving night and day, coming ever closer until the shrill sound of a steady whistle announces his arrival. He might turn up outside your bedroom door, speaking in the voice of a trusted friend, someone who would never hurt you… Here is the authentically terrifying, true-life story recounted by historian Robert Damon Schneck in a chapter of his classic underground collection of weird Americana, which formed the basis for the major motion picture, The Bye Bye Man. This unsettling tale is accompanied by seven more chapters of twisted history, and includes the author’s new afterword, “Searching for The Bye Bye Man.”