Mr. Manners was born at East Amwell, in Hunterdon County, N.J., Jan. 12, 1808, and was descended from an ancestry honorably mentioned in the military annals of the Revolution. His grandfather, Capt. John Schenck, bore a conspicuous part in the struggles preceding the battles of Monmouth and Princeton, and in those contests was recognized as a gallant and intrepid officer. His father, Capt. David Manners, was an officer in the war of 1812, and won honorable mention in several important engagements. The early years of David S. Manners were spent on the farm as aid to his father, who, besides the cultivation of the farm, was also employed in surveying large tracts of land in various parts of the State. It was during the winter months that young Manners attended the village school, where from the start he evinced the utmost interest in his studies, carrying his books in his pocket when at times engaged on the farm. His favorite study was that of mathematics, and it was by close application he was enabled to lay that basis of character which, in the occupation of surveying, rendered his services so valuable to his father and gave direction to the labors of his manhood.
In 1840, Mr. Manners, then in his thirty-second year, left the county of Hunterdon, with the small proceeds derived from the sale of the old homestead, to make his first venture in the mercantile world. His success was assured. Close and earnest attention to business as a wholesale grocer in New York City, with a steadfast and unyielding integrity which frowned on the trickeries of trade, found an early and merited reward, and enabled him in the short space of fourteen years to retire from the business. He came to Jersey City in 1844, which then had a population of about seven thousand, and invested largely in real estate. Always interested in the public welfare, his counsels were eagerly sought and civic honors awaited him at every step.
He was chosen in 1848 a member of the first Aldermanic Council elected by general ticket, and became chairman of its committee on finance, then, as now, a most important position, as giving direction to the progress and improvement of the city and shaping its great destiny. In the discharge of these duties the public confidence to an unusual degree was awarded him. A new charter having been obtained to meet the requirements of the fast-growing city, he was elected an alderman from the Second Ward, and immediately president of the Common Council, by virtue of which office he became a member of the Board of Water Commissioners, whose duty it was to obtain the introduction of pure and wholesome water into Jersey City. In 1854 the work was completed, and in the summer of that year the great event was celebrated in a becoming manner, the whole population by imposing processions and the thunders of artillery giving announcement to their joy at the manner in which the great work had been accomplished. Previous, however, to the completion of the works Mr. Manners, in 1852, by a nomination of the Citizens� party, had been elected as mayor by a very handsome majority, and he had thus the proud satisfaction of the public acclamations yielded to him as the chief executive for his untiring fidelity and unceasing labor, in conjunction with Hon. Dudley S. Gregory, Hon. John D. Ward and others, in summoning from their course the waters of the Passaic for the healthful purposes of the city he had loved and served so well. For five terms in succession he was re-elected to the mayoralty, and was only allowed to withdraw when, weary with the burdens of official station, he gave assurance of his readiness to join with his successors at all times in perfecting by every aid in his power the plans of municipal government he had so successfully inaugurated and now so confidingly bequeathed to them.
As mayor he never hesitated to interpose the executive veto against any measure which his far-seeing wisdom deemed hasty or imprudent, and it was this that attached to him through life the familiar title of "Old Veto."
Mr. Manners early manifested an interest in the question of insurance, and after repeated services as a director, he was elected, in 1854, president of the New Amsterdam Fire Insurance Company, at No. 20 Wall Street, then one of the leading companies of New York City. During his presidency the company leased and rebuilt the northwest corner of Broadway and Cortlandt Streets, and there conducted its business until its career was arrested by the great Chicago fire of 1871, an event unprecedented in insurance annals.
Perhaps there was no trait of the character of Mr. Manners more pronounced than that of steadfast adherence to principle and an unflinching courage in the maintenance of his convictions. In the long contest through the courts of the State he struggled manfully for the interests of the city to save the magnificent water-front from the encroachments of monopolies, and to permit the extension of its thoroughfares to tide-water, and thus give development to its commercial interests, beyond all others the most important to a city located as Jersey City is, at the very gates of commerce. It was for efforts such as this that Mr. Manners was repeatedly tendered a seat in the State Senate and in Congress; but he resolutely declined further promotion and retired from the field of politics.
Whatever gave promise of benefit to the best interests of the city in its moral or social enterprises found always in Mayor Manners a warm and earnest advocate. He connected himself with Grace Episcopal Church, and was a regular attendant, with his family, upon its services. His charities were numerous and unostentatiously bestowed.
He was married, in 1843, to Miss D.P. Johnes, of New York City, who died in 1876. Mr. Manners was fond of agricultural pursuits. He owned a valuable farm at Harlingen, in Somerset County, to the improvement of which he devoted such time as he could spare from the varied trusts under his control and the care and management of his city property. In the early summer of 1884 he was stricken with the disease which proved fatal, and on the 19th of August he passed quietly and peacefully away. He left surviving him four daughters and three sons,� Virginia (wife of John W. Beekman, of Perth-Amboy, a prominent member of the Middlesex bar), Marie Louise, Helen, Blanche, Sheridan (a civil engineer), Edwin (a young lawyer of prominence in Jersey City), and Clarence.
As a citizen and neighbor, Mr. Manners was greatly respected. In private life he was a conspicuous figure; he was genial, possessed of humor and a fund of witty anecdote. His home was the abode of a generous hospitality. From his extensive acquaintance with municipal affairs his counsel was often sought, especially by the young, to whom he was always ready to extend a helping hand, and by whom he will be greatly missed, as prominent among those who, by a long and honorable life of public and of private usefulness, have written their names in no doubtful characters upon the pages of Jersey City history.
From History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey by William H. Shaw, 1884.
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