More pictures at "Rogues' Gallery":

Gallery Index
Adolph in California 1928
Adolph's brother August
Family leaving Mexico 1914 and in Panama 1919
Family group 1942
Mother Loretta and sister Dillie
Brey farm

WORLD CONNECT SITES

Manly Meissner

* Ancestors of Manly Meissner: *
Ancestors of Adolph Frederick Meissner
Ancestors of Loretta Haskins

Manly and Hazel were married in June 1924 in IA, and lived on a farm near Cedar Rapids. Manly's family owned a plantation in Chiriqui province, Panama, near the Costa Rica border, where Manly and Hazel were planning to go,  and where they went in late 1925 (see Hazel's Panama Letters ). Meanwhile, in the fall of 1924, Hazel went to Clinton IA to care for her sister-in-law Faith at the birth of her daughter, while Manly stayed on the farm. He seems to have gotten a bit lonely. He sent Hazel a letter, with this poem:

A King
by Manly Meissner (1 Oct 1924)

I once was a king in the Andes
  Though scarce had I bread to eat;
I owned a large plantation
  And a horse whose feet were fleet.

I had my cows and chickens,
  A man to do the chores,
A man to wash the dishes
  When I would go for the stores.

I would look to the cold, blue mountains
  And watch the white clouds pile high,
Then gaze on the Pacific Ocean
  Or watch a parrot fly.

I loved the wild canary
  But my love was far away --
For I longed for a bright-eyed maiden
  To keep me company.

So I left the farm and my cattle,
  The busy hum of the bee,
That land of matchless beauty
  Where orchids bloomed in the tree,

And I sailed to California
  To see what my lot might be.
There I met that loveliest maiden
  The one that God had meant for me.

I wooed the bright-eyed lady,
  Though little she would to do with me,
And I won the fairest angel
  This side of eternity.

No more a king in the Andes,
  For a queen I have enthroned;
So now I am patiently waiting
  To see her coming HOME.