Richard Irvine Manning III

Richard Irvine Manning III (August 15, 1859 – September 11, 1931) was an American politician from the U.S. state of South Carolina. He served as a state legislator and as the 92nd governor of South Carolina. Biography Richard Irvine Manning III was born in Sumter County, South Carolina, on August 15, 1859, to Richard Irvine Manning II. His grandfather, Richard Irvine Manning I, had served as governor of the state from 1824 to 1826. Manning was educated at Kenmore Preparatory School in Amherst, Virginia, and the University of Virginia, which attended from 1877 to 1879. There he studied law but left after his sophomore year, and became a successful planter and businessman upon returning to Sumter. Manning's political career started during the era of Ben Tillman, and Manning served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1892 to 1896 before moving up to the South Carolina Senate from 1898 to 1906. When he was elected to the governorship in 1914, Manning brought many Progressive Era reforms to a state that had spent four years under the demagogic leadership of Coleman Livingston Blease. During his first term in office, South Carolina prohibited alcohol, established the state's first compulsory education law, and raised the minimum age for employment to 14. South Carolinians expressed their approval of these measures by re-electing Manning to a second term in 1916.