Submitted by Gina Sherrard



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JOHN J. MANNING

* Written by Peggy Rockett and appeared in the Bernice Banner on 11/9/1999

This week I am profiling my Great- Grandfather, John James Manning (hence forth called John J)
He was born to William Isaac and Mary Manning on Feb. 10, 1833 in Conecuh County, Alabama. I 
won't go into a lot of details, because I don't know a lot - records are scarce, some are hard 
to read, the Civil War destroyed many records and all the census records for 1890 were burned 
in Washington, D.C. - but bits and pieces have by work of mouth - drifted down through the 
years and I remember a few - but was not interested in genealogy much until my dad died and 
most of it died with him.

Louisiana was mostly settled in the northern part by farmers who were granted a section of land 
to homestead it. So people from the Californias, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were headed 
to new territory and that's how the Mannings ended up in Laran, LA in Union Parish, known to 
most older folk as Fork of D'Loutre.

John J. was just a poor dirt farmer, owned no slaves, bur he married into a family that did. 
He married Joicy McCormick (the name is spelled the way they used it) the daughter of Alvin W. 
McCormick and his wife Joyce Emily Guice. Alvin was a merchant in the area - not to be confused 
with a later Alvin McCormick, who was also a merchant in Laran.

I thought I might have been named after Joicy or her mother, or her grandmother, as both were 
named Joyce (used correctly)- but I was assured by my parents that I was not. John J. and Joicy 
had one son William Alvin (my grandfather) and another on the way when he was called up to 
fight for the south during the Civil War, so I fell sure he had no choice - like most - to go 
and leave his family to fend for themselves. 

My dad, Tatum Manning, said John J. lived with them after Joicy died and he as a small boy of 
five, would sit with him on the porch in the warm sunshine and listen to his tales of the war. 
His war record stated that he was rather small man with black eyes and nothing else. Only two 
family members from our line have inherited black eyes) that I know of) - Daddy's brother 
Garland and my niece Debbie Aycock. Her daughter, Tina's are almost black. I don't know where 
all John J. fought in the war, but he was captured in the siege at Vicksburg. 

One story that has been handed down, and I have told it to my grandchildren, in hopes that 
they will someday pass it on to theirs. After his second child was born, he can home on furlough 
for a few days and had no way to know he was coming - Joicy made him wait outside until she could 
place their baby girl next to his sister's baby girl to see if he could pick his own child out. 
(His brother-in-law) was also in the war.) But before he could decide - five year-old Billy walked 
up and put his hand on her head and said "this'un is ourn, Pa!" 

He also said, my dad, that the best drink of water he ever had was from a horse hoof print in the 
ground. His brother James (we believe either John's name is wrong or his brother's name was wrong) 
died needlessly, because after six weeks of a siege they were starved out, James became reckless 
and stood up to go to the toilet instead of crawling through the trenches and a Yankee put a bullet 
clear through his head. So he is buried there. 

I was told once by one of his great-granddaughters that his wife died rather young and they 
allowed her to be buried next to him, leaving their young son to be shifted from family to 
family. After the war was over, John came back to Laran to his family. He and Joicy had several 
more children (will be listed later) - I'm sure he farmed like everyone who planned to eat, but 
he also made a Baptist preacher and donated the land that Mt. Olive Baptist Church sits on 
today. The Manning homestead is almost opposite the church, but a cemetery and school was 
directly across. The cemetery was abandoned many, many years ago and has overgrown with trees, 
weeds and vines. Many unmarked graves are there known by word of mouth. Daddy took some of us 
back to the homestead once, and all I found were a few cypress shingles and a few handmade 
square nails.

John J. died June 29, 1911 - outliving Joicy by twelve years and leaving a little boy 
who enjoyed listening to his war tales. Daddy said when he took a school bus load of high 
school seniors to the Vicksburg Memorial Park he felt like he had already been there.

John and Joicy are buried in Laran Cemetery, formerly known as Nelson Cemetery, along with 
part of the family and many of the McCormicks.

The children of John and Joicy: William Alvin Manning, (Billy); Ellen H. Hux; Riley Manning, 
James "Jim" Samuel Manning, Rodney Manning, Isaac "Ike" Manning, and Jamima Manning Morgan.
John J.'s siblings were: Stephen, William, James, Wealthy Manning Faulkner (Mrs. Carroll), and 
Tabitha "Topsy" or  "Topin" Manning Porter (Mrs. William T.)
        
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