Kendall Desmond fancies herself a time traveler.
When the Parker resident stumbled on a faded leatherbound Excelsior Diary from 1896 in a box of old books given to her husband by family friends, she didn’t immediately realize the trip she would embark on.
The diary — a day planner full of appointments from the late 19th century — sat on Desmond’s packed bookshelf from 2020 until 2023, when curiosity got the best of her as she delved into her own genealogy. She bounced around the country as a military brat growing up, so learning about her ancestors helps anchor her in place.
“I’m a total history nerd. In another life, I totally would have been a historian,” said Desmond, who works a corporate job and is mom to an 18-month-old baby. “It’s interesting to time-travel.”
Desmond pulled the diary from the shelf and started chipping away at its mysteries in her spare time.
Her first question to crack: Whose days did this planner log?
There was no name on the diary, so Desmond had some detective work on her hands. Her first clue came from a few entries about seeing a doctor “for Calista.” Desmond wondered whether Calista could be the diary owner’s wife.
Several entries also referenced attending faculty meetings and going to the “law school.”
The University of Denver is the oldest higher education institution in the state, so Desmond assumed that’s where the diary-owner taught.
The history buff checked DU’s archives for a list of anyone who would have taught law at the institution between 1895 and 1896. Then, she paired those last names with Calista to see whether anyone came up in Colorado newspaper records who might have been related to the diary owner.
The name Calista Manly returned results.
George C. Manly was a DU law professor. After some digging, Desmond learned Calista Manly was the widow of George Manly’s brother.
George Manly had recorded appointments in his diary related to medical care for his brother’s widow.
“So that was an interesting peek into life at that time,” Desmond said of those entries in the diary, which she noted remained in excellent condition.
To ensure she had the right person, Desmond then cross-referenced the diary entries — dates of meetings and events — with records kept in old newspaper archives she found online. The clippings matched the comings-and-goings of George Manly, who she would later learn was one of the founders of the , a beloved DU law school dean and a Republican state senator.
“Just the fact somebody so important owned it was so cool,” Desmond said. “I wondered why I ended up with it and how did it end up in a random box of books? My husband is a lawyer who went to DU, so it’s very cool that we have it. This man was such a big, important person in Denver for this long period of time, and itap just kind of crazy how all of this can easily be forgotten.”
Desmond compiled a stash of newspaper clippings and historical records that document her deep-dive into the life and times of the Manly family. She chronicled her trail of research into a PowerPoint presentation that she gave at her local Toastmasters club, a nonprofit organization that provides a space for people to gain public speaking skills.
She found a 1913 news article announcing Manly becoming president of the Denver Bar Association. A 1931 article named him president of the Colorado Bar Association.
A profile of Manly in the legal publication Bench and Bar of Colorado said he was born in Uniontown, Ohio, in 1863 and married Allie Blake, the daughter of oilman and Conoco founder Isaac Blake.
The couple lived on Lafayette Street in a home that is still standing and sold for $1.7 million in 2020. Manly was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1887 and appointed dean of DU Law — now known as the Sturm College of Law — from 1910 to 1926, the publication said. In 1931, Manly was elected as a Republican state senator.
A newspaper article about his campaign described Manly as “a seasoned lawyer with wide business experience” and “an active force for sound government.”
“People are not looking for candidates with the glad hand, but for men with an intelligent understanding of what the public needs and wants and backbone to back it up and such a man is George C. Manly,” the article read.
In a 1914 Rocky Mountain News story, journalist Eugene Parrot Fowler wrote that Manly’s first lecture of the year to students consisted of the following rules: “1. No professor shall be thrown out of the window while teaching. 2. No student shall set the school on fire.”
In a recent interview, Desmond shared her findings with blazing passion, rattling off facts and anecdotes from her meticulous research as if speaking about one of her own loved ones.
She carefully flipped through Manly’s diary while seated in front of her towering bookcase, pointing out entries of interest and showing off Manly’s painstakingly precise cursive writing that looks too pristine to be real, aside from spots where the ink bled through the page.
“This could be in a museum,” Desmond said, patting the diary’s cover.
Desmond became immersed in the world of Manly and his associates. She couldn’t stop thumbing through the diary, wondering what life was like for this family with whom she now felt connected.
As Desmond continued reading up on Manly, his daughters and loved ones — finding information through genealogy websites and online archives — she was struck by a 1914 news clipping about his 22-year-old daughter, Esther Manly, dying from “overexertion” after a tennis game.
Desmond thought about her own emergency C-section and couldn’t stop ruminating about what would have happened to her if she had experienced birth complications during Esther Manly’s time, or if Esther Manly had access to modern medical care after her tennis match.
“It’s just fascinating to think about,” Desmond said.
The history nerd was dying for a more tangible link to this family. She had to see their graves.
Desmond tracked down the Manly family’s burial plot at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver and went to pay her respects to the man whose diary now sits on her bookshelf.
“I have this morbid fascination with cemetery records,” Desmond said. “I tell my husband all the time, I love that the Manly family had this permanent resting place. What if somebody wanted to look up who our family was after we’re gone? I want to be buried in a historic cemetery so I can tell the women buried next to me I could vote and wear crop tops.”
She found herself pleading with Fairmount Cemetery staff to give her more information and check their records about the people buried in the Manly family plot. While she couldn’t get them to share an address for the home where descendant Marian Manly Mitchell died in 1992, she did learn one of the graves likely belonged to an infant, according to Fairmount records.
“That was somebody’s deceased infant,” Desmond said, eyes far away as she thinks through the family tree she knows well. “I don’t know whose.”
Now, she wonders whether there’s a better home for the diary. Thus far, her attempts to interest the Colorado Bar Association or DU with her research haven’t struck a chord, but she’s hopeful to continue uncovering information and, perhaps, a missing link to the Manly family will turn up another passionate historian.
Representatives of the bar association couldn’t be reached for comment, and DU officials said they did not have anyone available to discuss Manly.
“I didn’t know much about Denver history before this,” Desmond said. “I preferred the history of coastal towns with a lot longer history, but this experience made me fall in love with Denver’s history and want to learn more and get involved in the historical community here. It’s made me appreciate Denver all the more.”
