Richard Irvine Manning III was the grandson of Richard Irvine Manning and the son of Elizabeth Allen (Sinkler) and Richard Irvine Manning, a Confederate colonel who died in service. He was born on August 15, 1859 at Holmesley plantation, Sumter County, South Carolina.
Manning went to school in the neighborhood, then in Amherst, Va. , and entered the University of Virginia, where he was a student from 1877 to 1879, but was not graduated.
Farming on poor land, living in a cottage, the husband could proudly give his wife a buggy only after the passage of several years. A capable manager, he prospered, bought plantations, invested in industries, and became president of a bank in the town of Sumter. In 1892 he was elected to the legislature and was one of the small minority opposed to the Democratic faction led by Gov. B. R. Tillman. A student, watchful of legislation, not active in debate, he was a progressive in politics. In 1894 when the Australian ballot was scarcely heard of in South Carolina he offered a bill for its adoption, which was, however, defeated, and he pressed for improvements in education and reforms in taxation. After three terms he was elected state senator in 1898 and served until 1906. As an author of a bill for the complete reform and rebuilding of the "state dispensary" or liquor-traffic system, he defended his plan in the campaign for the governorship in 1906, but he was defeated. He spent the next years in caring for his interests as planter and businessman, as well as for the affairs of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of South Carolina, in which he was perhaps the most prominent layman. In 1914 he ran for governor against eight candidates and was nominated by a large majority in the second primary, in a state where nomination was equivalent to election. His administrations were the most notable in South Carolina since the régime of Wade Hampton after the Reconstruction period. He emphasized law enforcement and the suppression of lynching. He was especially concerned for the rehabilitation of the state hospital for the insane, which was accomplished at cost of more than a million dollars without increasing the state debt. A school for feeble-minded girls and a hospital for tuberculous patients were established, a tax commission, a board of welfare, and a board of labor conciliation were created. The last grew out of textile strikes in which his attitude toward labor cost him the support of some of the cotton-mill executives who had been his friends. A strenuous campaign by the former governor, Coleman L. Blease, was waged against him in 1916, but he was renominated by a decisive majority. During the World War he threw himself into the American cause and worked to administer the resources of the state as effectively as possible. His appointments were such as to make it an honor to serve on a county draft board under him. He moved from Sumter to Columbia shortly after his retirement as governor and died there.
He is interred in the churchyard at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
Manning was not an adept politician but was a business man of quiet manner, tenacious purpose, and real courage. Six of his own sons, all but the youngest, served as soldiers.
He married on February 10, 1881, Lelia Bernard Meredith, daughter of John A. Meredith, of Richmond, Verginia. They had thirteen children.
22 December 1817 - 10 October 1861
16 September 1821 - 2 April 1908
2 August 1856 - 2 January 1945
May 1, 1789 - May 1, 1836 Was the 50th governor of South Carolina.
January 1861 - 22 January 1947
28 April 1892 - 11 May 1893
17 July 1887 - 18 March 1969
1 January 1882 - 26 May 1939
6 January 1896 - 23 May 1901
4 April 1883 - 9 December 1902
1 May 1894 - 18 July 1909
28 January 1886 - 5 November 1918
22 November 1897 - 1 October 1960
13 March 1889 - 22 July 1983
18 May 1902 - 21 April 1964
27 September 1899 - 19 October 1986
21 July 1890 - 9 December 1967
24 June 1884 - 2 December 1897
