Manannah Township-

Early settlers Ziba Caswell and J. W. Walker in 1856 named the village along the Crow River Manannah, and gave the same name to the township when it was organized a year later. Their search in an old Scottish history book provided the inspiration for the name.  The village of Manannah boasted a flour mill and was one of the earliest settlements in the county.   One of the most unique early residents of the town was Lucy Ann Lobdell, who arrived from New York in the fall of 1856.  She was an excellent marksman who by the age of 12 “could outshoot any man!”  By the time she came to Manannah, she had changed her name to La-Roi-Lobdell and always dressed in men’s clothing, passing for two years as a man.  The Meeker County Attorney, Wm. Richards, filed charges stating “Lobdell, being a woman, falsely personates a man, to the great scandal of the community.”  It was found, however, that women had the right to wear pants, and the case was dismissed.  She received the name “Wild Woman of Manannah”, and as she further became an outcast she headed back east.

During the Dakota Indian War settlers took refuge in a hotel in Manannah.  When 11 men who had gone to the Forest City stockade returned to Manannah, four of them were killed, in what was called the Manannah Massacre.  A stockade was built in around part of the old townsite in 1863.  In the late 1800’s Manannah boasted twelve business places: three general stores, a flour and feed mill, a hotel, a cabinet shop, two blacksmith shops, a barber, a creamery, a pool hall and a harness shop. 

The southern portion of Eden Valley, a  railway village platted in 1886, rests in this township.  Eden Valley was originally the village of Logering, 2 1/2 miles east of the present site.  The first school was built in 1887.  The waterworks system in the village was completed in 1903.  Until 1912 the city streets were lighted by kerosene lamps.  In 1913, the village was struck by a major fire.  It apparently was ignited by the sparks from a locomotive.   On a hot June afternoon, the fire spread from the depot to several structures in the community.  By evening, despite the help of locals and hundreds of citizens from neighboring communities, a large section of the town was destroyed.