Harry attended Davy Crockett elementary school (Dallas)only through the third grade. However, realizing his need for further education, he completed a secretarial course from Metropolitan Business College, Dallas, Texas, in 1909. He excelled in penmanship and his handwriting was always superior. Incidentally, his son Charles Victor Manes, Sr., completed the same course at the same institution with the same instructors in 1938. After graduation from the business course, Harry was employed by the bookkeeping department of John Deer Plow Company for $25 per month. In 1915, he worked for Satley Motor and Tractor Company and bought his first automobile, a Model T for $270. It was stolen a few days after purchase, but was recovered by police within a short time. There were not many Model T's around in Dallas at this time. Harry married Birdie King 31 November 1916 in Dallas. They had one son, Charles Victor Manes, born November 1917. In 1927, Harry moved with his family to Ranger,Texas, working for the Ford Motor Company as a stockman. The same year, he moved to Eastland, Texas to work for Root-Rhodes Oil Company, first as a clerk then as a landman. In 1945, he was employed by SOHIO in Industrial Relations in Houston, Texas.

In an autobiography written in 1980's, Harry said: "There was a depression along about 1890 and Dad bought our house and two lots in West Dallas about 1897 for $60 for the taxes that were due. We had a cow and garden in the extra lot. The cow produced five gallons of milk each day, enough for five kids and Mother and Dad. In addition, the cow made two pounds of butter a week which sold for 10 cents a pound or enough for two good round steaks." Harry further wrote, "After Beaumont (Spindle Top) oil field began to slow down in production, Batson Prairie came in and Dad was made Drilling Superintendant for Harper and Sharp Contractors at the then magnificient sum of $5.00 a day....Since Dad had saved a thousand dollars, he bought a farm (640 acres) at Eagle Ford, five miles West of Dallas, and we became a regular farm family, raised a little cotton, but 100 acres of alfalfa which grew abundantly in the Trinity River bottom rich soil...On the farm were 12 artesian wells, one of which flowed a solid 4-inch stream of water continuously and we received $100 a month for this water from Texaco....The farm was a success until the 1908 deluge. At that time, all forks of the Trinity River were at flood stage, backing up water over our farm ten fee deep. As a result, we lost the farm and only salvaged the stock. ...About 1910, Dad bought ten acres on the old Forney Road and built our home there....In 1926, I went to work for Root & Rhodes in Eastland, Texas and was with this connection until May of 1944. Part of this time was looking after a venture called Root-Dyer and Manes in Owensboro, Kentucky. We drilled some 100 wells, a lot of dry ones, but had 800 barrels a day production during the 1930 depression Oil went to 27 cents a barrel in Kentuck and as low as ten cents a barrel in East Texas. We sold the Kentucky properties and I returned to work in Eastland."

As a result of a fall in a nursing home in Dallas and breaking his hip, Harry died 1 December 1989, and was buried in Grove Hill Memorial Cemetery. At his funeral, his son Charles Victor Manes said:"Throughout his many years, most of us knew Harry Manes as a gentle person, a good parent, a devoted family man, a dependable relative and a trusting friend. Harry had his likes and dislikes. Above all else, Harry liked people. All people. He shared with Will Rogers the enviable trait of never meeting a person he did not like. But, Harry Manes inherited an additional quality. That is, everone who met Harry liked him and soon counted him a a special friend. However there is one experience that Harry Manes did not like and he spent a lifetime trying to avoid it. He did not like going to funerals. Harry Manes hated funerals. As a boy, his parents had to drag him to every funeral. During his adult years, all funerals made him physically ill. So, we are certain of one thing this morning. If Harry Manes had a choice, he would not be here today. As Christians we firmly believe that Harry Manes rests here briefly in body only. His spirit has departed and he is eagerly joining once again all he knew and loved so well...all who preceeded him, his family members, his relatives and his friends. And, as Christians we know that death is only the burying of life's temporary sorrows and that the resurrection brings forth life's real, true, and permanent joys. So, we all are in agreement this morning that Harry Manes' eternal life is just beginning."