MANN, MELBOURNE J.

MANN, HOUGH, OWEN, CAULKINS, STAHL

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 1/6/2004 at 16:58:06

Biography reproduced from page 658 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Well directed energy and ambition have brought a gratifying degree of success to Melbourne J. Mann in business circles of Burt, where he has been prominent for ten years. The same qualities have marked his career in the development of a fine tract of land in Kossuth county and his activities in both lines have influenced the growth of the section.

Mr. Mann is numbered among the pioneer settlers in Iowa and dates his residence in Kossuth county from 1864. He is a native of New York, having been born in Clinton county in 1857. His father, S. V. R. Mann, was born and reared in New Hampshire and spent some years of his life in Vermont. He later went to New York, establishing his residence in Clinton county, where his marriage occurred. His wife in her maidenhood was Miss Fidelia Hough, a native of New York state. Mr. Mann followed the occupation of bridge carpenter for some years, during his early life in Clinton county. He moved west to Iowa in 1864, arriving in June of that year. In the following September he took up a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres in what is now Portland township and was one of the pioneers in agricultural development of the section. He cleared the land and broke the soil, made extensive improvements and for a number of years lived in a sod house upon his holdings. He farmed along up-to-date methods and after a few years had brought his two hundred acres to a high state of cultivation. He erected a substantial and comfortable home, provided barns and outbuildings and was prosperous and successful as a general farmer. He had a number of his acres under cultivation in fruit orchard and this branch of his activities formed a valuable source of his income. He brought up his family upon the farm and died upon his original holdings in 1900. His wife survives him and is making her home with her daughter in Burt, Iowa. M. J. Mann, our subject, it the oldest in a family of four children. The others are: E. O., a well known farmer of Portland township; C. F., who follows agriculture in Burt township; and Fidelia, the wife of L. M. Owen, a successful business man of Burt, of whom more extended mention is made elsewhere in this work.

Melbourne J. Mann came to Kossuth county with his parents when he was a child. He was reared in this section and received his education in the public schools. His early life was filled with minor duties on his father’s farm and as he grew up, he was given more responsible work, aiding his father in carrying on his enterprise and in improving and developing his holdings. When he married in 1880 he left the homestead and rented a large tract of land in Kossuth county which he cultivated for two years. He gained success in this line of activity and was enabled to purchase a forty acre tract, to which he later added eighty acres. His land was entirely unimproved. It had not been broken and there was not a building upon the whole one hundred and twenty acres. He fenced it into fields, built up-to-date barns and later added a modern and commodious dwelling. He operated his land along progressive, scientific lines and was always interested in every new development in methods and machinery. He was constantly adding to his holdings and now owns three hundred and twenty acres in one body of the most fertile and productive land in Kossuth county. He had a large tract under cultivation as an orchard and was well known as a successful general farmer. In 1901 he rented his property and moved into the city of Burt, where he has been prosperous in a business way. His first enterprise along commercial lines was a livery establishment, which he carried on for eight years. At the end of that time he sold a half interest and later disposed of his entire establishment. In 1904 he and his wife toured the Pacific states of America where they spent the winter visiting friends. They traveled north to Canada down the coast through Seattle and Portland to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Riverside and San Bernardino and spent six months in a delightful tour of the Pacific coast.

Mr. Mann is one of the successful business men in the city of Burt. There is hardly a legitimate line of commercial enterprise with which he is not connected. He was a promoter and is now a stockholder in the Burt Creamery Company and makes a specialty of buying and selling thoroughbred horses. This branch of his activity had its beginning on the farm when he raised high-grade stock for the market. He is a stockholder in the Farmers Elevator Company, which enterprise he helped to promote and of which he was president for ten years. He is also extensively interested in the local telephone company.

On November 25, 1880, Mr. Mann was married in Plum Creek township to Miss Ada Caulkins, a native of Vernon county, Wisconsin, and a daughter of Orin Caulkins, who moved to Kossuth county, Iowa, about 1863 and located on a farm six miles east of Algona. Mr. and Mrs. Mann have one son, Frank J., who until November 1, 1912, operated his father’s farm in Kossuth county and is now engaged in the automobile business at Algona. Frank J. Mann is a prominent Mason and is master of Kossuth Lodge, No. 540, F. & A. M. He married Louise Stahl and has one son, William M.

In his political affiliations Mr. Mann has always been a republican but standing for the progressive ideas in municipal and national government has become a member of the national progessive party. He was elected township trustee and for some time did efficient work as roadmaster of this district. He is interested in education and served as a member of the school board. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order, and he and his wife hold membership in the Order of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Mann has passed through all the chairs in this organization and is now past worthy matron. Mr. Mann has won the prosperity which his intelligent labor deserves and is respected and esteemed by his fellow citizens.

Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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