“M” is for Manning (Clarendon County; 2020 population 3,852). Manning was established in 1855 to provide a central location for a courthouse in the newly created Clarendon District. It was named after a family that produced three South Carolina governors. Travelling through town in 1939, Broadcaster Walter Winchell described Brooks Street in Manning as “the most beautiful street between Maine and Miami.” Although agriculture remained the economic foundation of the town for much of the twentieth century, its economy nevertheless underwent changes. At one time the city’s biggest industry was its tobacco market that closed in 1931. The city aggressively pursued industrial development in the decades after World War II. By the end of the twentieth century, Manning boasted a fifteen acre industrial park with plants producing auto bearings, textiles, timber, and stainless-steel transport tankers.
“M” is for Manning
