Our Story

the History

The story of any house is the story of the families who lived there, and the Manhart house is no exception. The Manhart story in Colorado begins with the arrival of pioneers Christian and Sarah and their family, including son George. Eventually, the family grew to include eight children.

            Christian and Sarah moved from Pennsylvania to Iowa. In 1860, they joined a wagon train headed to Colorado. The trip took 45 days. The Manhart’s settled in Fairplay, where Christian dug for gold and worked as a carpenter, while Sarah took in laundry.

            In 1866, the family moved to Douglas County, homesteading ranchland near the entrance of Jarre Canyon. The Keystone Ranch eventually grew to 1800 acres. The homesteading papers were signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.

            During the winter of 1868, marauding Indians raided the ranch. Christian sent Sarah and the children to Denver for safety. The government, which had caused the problem by breaking the treaty, issued Springfield rifles to homesteaders.

            Eventually, the treaty problem was solved, and the family merely stayed in the yard while Indians ransacked the house for food and trinkets. Indians loved children, and a family story relates that Ute Chief Colorow offered to buy Bert, the youngest, in trade for beads and a pony.

            In addition to running the ranch, Christian and son George opened a grocery and general store in 1878. At first, it was housed in two small rooms behind Marquis Victor’s blacksmith shop on Plum Avenue. In 1882, George took over the business and built a new store. The business continued to grow until it became a large two-story rock structure covering half a block. George heated the building with steam heat and built a dynamo to provide electricity to the store and the house.

            George married Bertha Manhart in 1878, the same year he and his father opened their business. As the business grew, so did the family. At first, they lived in a room behind the store, and then in a small frame house near the store at the corner of Manhart and Plum. Just before the birth of their 13th child, they moved into a stately new brick home to the north of the store. Dates on construction differ, but it was constructed in the late 1890’s or early 1900’s. (Dates of construction in Sedalia are difficult to verify. In 1909, the county replatted Sedalia, and county records simply date the buildings from that date.)

            The Manhart store was the center of the small community. It held the post office, and a raised boardwalk in front allowed wagons to back right up to the store for easy loading of 100-pound sacks of feed and flour. The second floor was used as a community room for dances, church services, and meetings, and was known as Manhart Hall.

            In 1899, it was the scene of a murder. There was a dance party, which got fairly rowdy. William Hoffman, Bertha’s brother, and his cousin, Thomas Campbell, got into a name-calling match. Campbell pulled a knife and attacked Hoffman, who drew his gun and shot him. Local lore says that the mob caught Hoffman and tried to hang him from the large cottonwood tree next to the store, but the sheriff arrived and he was cut down. Hoffman was convicted of murder, but he was later pardoned by the governor when witnesses confirmed that Campbell started the argument.

            That was the same year that Bertha Hoffman’s stepfather, Alexander McDonald, was killed by a train. His horse and wagon crossed the tracks, unaware of the southbound train. The horse survived.

            George Manhart was active in many local groups—the International Order of Odd Fellows, whose lodge stood diagonally opposite from his home, the grange, and the Masons, and served on the school board. Bertha was busy with her children and social activities, but still found time to compile a series of scrapbooks that give a glimpse of Sedalia life around the turn of the century. She clipped items from all the local papers for many years. Museum volunteers copied the scrapbooks and organized the clippings by local families and events. These volumes are available at the Sedalia Museum for research.

            The eleven children who survived childhood went on to marry with other local families, leaving Sedalia with a lasting legacy.

            The house itself housed another family after the Manhart’s, then was converted to a fine restaurant in 1986. Matthew and Jan Bundy bought the structure in 1993, and added the wing with a bar and banquet room, still keeping in style with the older house. The building was landmarked in 2014. The old store was severely damaged in a storm in the 1990’s and was torn down, but stories about both buildings linger on in local history.

Bertha’s clippings write of Thanksgiving dinners in the building, where the married ladies prepared the food, and the young ladies of the community served dinner to the town bachelors. At one time, a mock trial was held for entertainment.

Restaurant workers tell of meeting an apparition in the front window of the upstairs room. Accounts agree that she is young, wearing a white dress, and has a beautiful serene smile. Perhaps she is the spirit of young Sarah Ellen, who died at age eight, or Mary Wilamina, who died at age 4.

At another time, a server was asked by two diners to identify another couple, seated across the upstairs room, wearing period dress. He couldn’t see them. When the customers came downstairs to pay their bill, they spotted a photo of George and Bertha. “That’s who we saw,” they exclaimed.

Through their descendants, and perhaps their ghosts, the Manhart’s were a leading force in the founding of Sedalia.