MANN, MR. AND MRS. GEORGE W.
MANN, DUSTIN, BELLOWS, WILLIS
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 1/7/2004 at 13:04:00
Biography reproduced from page 712 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
Although not among the earliest settlers in Kossuth county Mr. and Mrs. George W. Mann occupy an important place in connection with the pioneer history of this and Humboldt counties. George Washington Mann was born on a farm near the town of South Wales, in Erie county, New York, November 1, 1829, and was the second son of Nathan Miles and Sally L. (Dustin) Mann, the latter a great-great-granddaughter of Hannah Dustin, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, famous in history as having been taken into captivity by the Indians at the time of the massacre in 1697.
George W. Mann came to Iowa in 1857, settling in Humboldt county. It was there that he met Laura M. Bellows, who had come to this state with her brothers from Illinois in the spring of 1857 and settled on the Bellows homestead which was well known to all early settlers in Kossuth as well as Humboldt counties, being the place where the stage, which carried the mail between Fort Dodge and Algona, as well as the travelers between the same points, stopped, that the passengers might have food and shelter. Laura M. Bellows was born in Chateaugay, Franklin county, New York, June 15, 1829, and was a daughter of Simon and Celinda (Willis) Bellows. In 1844 the Bellows family emigrated to McHenry county, Illinois, from which place the Bellows brothers and their sister Laura moved to Iowa.
The marriage of George W. Mann and Laura M. Bellows occurred in Algona, August 25, 1859, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Chauncey Taylor, the pioneer preacher, this being one of the early weddings of his Kossuth county ministry. The wedding party which drove up from Humboldt county comprised Mr. and Mrs. Simon Bellows, Laura Bellows, Miss Delia Plum, of Fort Dodge, and Mr. Mann. The wedding supper was served after the ceremony by Miss Harriet E. Taylor, daughter of the officiating clergyman. There were present at this supper besides the Rev. Taylor, his son James, daughter Harriet and the wedding party from Humboldt county, Mr. and Mrs. Asa C. Call, Mr. and Mrs. Haven F. Watson and Frank Rist. Mrs. Jerome E. Stacy, who as Miss Harriet Taylor presided as hostess on this occasion, was recently interviewed regarding the event by a member of the Mann family.
“Did the party drive up from Humboldt in the three-spring democrat wagon which my uncle had for so many years?” was asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mrs. Stacy replied. “I don’t think there was a spring wagon in the country at that time. I know there was not in Algona and very few horses—mostly oxen.” Then after a moment’s reflection: “I think they came in a lumber wagon with a board across the box for a spring seat. I expected them for dinner but they didn’t get here until after noon.”
“They had written Father Taylor to arrange for the wedding, had they?”
“No,” said Mrs. Stacy. “Father used to go back and forth to Fort Dodge and he always stopped at the Bellowses and they made the arrangements there.”
These reminiscences show incidentally the simplicity, democracy and whole-souled hospitality of the pioneer’s life.
Mr. and Mrs. Mann lived in Humboldt county until 1864, and on the 11th of May of that year removed to the place on section 19, Irvington township, Kossuth county, which for nearly fifty years had been known as the Mann home. Five children were born to them, three in Humboldt county and two after their removal to Irvington. These are Viola, Nathan M., Horace, Alice and Bertha. Both Mr. and Mrs. Mann had taught school during some portion of their earlier lives and Mr. Mann was the first county superintendent of schools in Humboldt county. He also taught two winters in Humboldt county after his marriage. He was secretary of the Humboldt County Agricultural Association during one year. After removing to this county he became a life member of the Kossuth County Agricultural Association and took an active interest in its annual county fair. He was especially interested in fruit-growing and was a pioneer in demonstrating the adaptability of the soil and climate of the county to horticulture and ascertaining the varieties sufficiently hardy to withstand the severe winters of this section. His work in this direction was so successful that the Mann orchard is still one of the best and most widely known of the county and usually contributes to the horticultural exhibit at the county fair.
Mr. Mann also served many years as a member of the school board of Irvington township and both he and his wife were actively interested in the advancement of the public welfare and all movements for the improvement of the social, education and industrial advantages of the community received their cordial support. In politics Mr. Mann was a republican, casting his first presidential vote in Iowa for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and his last for James G. Blaine in 1884. In religious faith both he and his wife were Universalists, being among the founders of the Universalist Society of Algona. Mr. Mann passed away of congestion of the brain after a brief illness, December 20, 1884, and was interred in the Irvington cemetery. His wife survived him for nearly fifteen years and died August 6, 1899, being then laid to rest by his side. Their five children had grown to manhood and womanhood on the Irvington farm and at this time, 1913, four of them are living in the old home although they have been away more or less during the years that have passed. The eldest, Viola, entered the State Normal School at Cedar Falls when Professor J. C. Gilchrist was at the head of that institution, and later completed the normal school course under his instruction at the Northern Iowa Normal School in Algona. She began teaching in the rural districts of Kossuth county at the age of eighteen and continued to follow that profession, interspersed at time with her own educational improvement, for a period of twenty-five years. She has taught in the rural schools of Kossuth, Humboldt and Hardin counties and in the town schools of Luverne, Armstrong and Iowa Falls. She also taught one term in Illinois. After retiring from teaching she lived in California for nearly two years but for the past few years has been at the end of the household at the Mann home in Irvington.
Nathan Miles Mann was born in Humboldt county, November 28, 1861, was only a child of about two and a half years when his parents came to Kossuth county and was reared on the home farm in Irvington township in very much the same manner as other farmer lads of that period. In the acquirement of his education he attended the common schools and while engaged in the mastery of his lessons was laying the foundation for an agricultural career by assisting his father with the work of the farm. He has always devoted his energies to farming and stock-raising and now owns about one hundred and sixty acres of fertile land in Irvington township. Progressive and enterprising in his methods and practical in his ideas, Mr. Mann has met with success in his undertakings and now owns one of the most highly cultivated and best improved farms in this section of the county. In connection with the cultivation of his fields he raises shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. He is well known in the county lived in the vicinity of his present home since infancy. Mr. Mann has other business interests outside of his farm and for three years he was president of the Irvington Creamery Company. In religious faith he is a Unitarian. His political support is accorded to the republican party and he has served as school director. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America at Irvington and also the Red Men, and he belongs to the Mystic Workers of the World at Algona. Mr. Mann is one of the highly esteemed residents of Irvington township where in both public and private life he has manifested those qualities that have won for him the regard of all with whom he has had dealings.
Horace Mann, the youngest of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. George W. Mann while they resided in Humboldt county, began teaching at the age of nineteen. The next year he entered the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso and was graduated therefrom with a degree of B. S. At the age of twenty-two years he received the democratic nomination for county surveyor but declined on account of being a republican in his political views. Two years afterward he was nominated in the republican county convention for the same office and was elected without opposition and reelected two years later. After serving three years as county surveyor he resigned and entered the University of Michigan as a special student in mathematics and astronomy. At the end of three semesters at the university he was appointed an assistant in the United States Nautical Almanac office at Washington, D. C., and filled the position for five years. Outside of office hours during a portion of this period he continued his university course in the Columbian University, now the George Washington University, specializing in political and social science, and won the degrees of Bachelor or Science and Master of Science. Becoming interested in national politics while living at the capital and observing the absolute domination of the government by special interests and the consequent ignoring of the general welfare, he resigned from the Nautical Almanac office and returned to Iowa to become a candidate for the democratic nomination for congress, two years after Mr. Bryan’s first campaign. After two unsuccessful campaigns for the congressional nomination he returned to the east, going first to Lewiston, Maine, where he engaged in the organization of a cooperative company. He afterward returned to Washington where he did some additional work in the National Almanac office and began writing for such radical publications as the Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Democrat, the Arean and the International Socialist Review. Later he removed to Buffalo, New York, where for several years he engaged in newspaper work and political organization for the initiative and referendum, the Des Moines plan charter, equal suffrage and the socialist program for the complete extermination of graft. He was assistant treasurer of the Referendum League, secretary of the Des Moines Plan Charter Association, secretary of the Christian Socialist Fellowship, county chairman of the socialist party and nominee of the party for county clerk of Erie county, and a member of the Political Equality Club during some portions of his residence in Buffalo. Early in 1911 he severed his connections in that city and returned to his old home, believing that the higher moral standards and less congested opportunities of this community promised the most favorable conditions for political education to abolish the reign of privileged interests and to restore the rule of the people.
Alice Mann engaged in teaching at the age of sixteen and followed that profession during the next six years, teaching in Kossuth and Humboldt counties and in McHenry county, Illinois. When twenty-two she entered the Iowa State Agricultural College at Ames, from which institution she graduated four years later with the degree of Bachelor of Science. After her graduation she accepted the position of assistant principal of the Ames high school and so continued for four years, resigning to accept a similar position in the Algona high school, where she remained for a year. At her mother’s death she became the household manager for the family and for the past four years she has been living with an invalid uncle in California.
Bertha Mann began teaching at the age of seventeen and two years later entered the state college at Ames with her elder sister, graduating at the age of twenty-two with the degree of Bachelor of Science. She again engaged in teaching for a couple of years and then entered the Post-Graduate Hospital of Chicago for training in the nurse’s profession and was graduated two years later. At that time she was offered the position of head surgical nurse of the hospital but declined, deciding to do private work in the profession. She came back to her old home which she has since made her headquarters and her professional services have been in constant demand in Kossuth and surrounding counties. During the Spanish-American war she enrolled for service in the army hospital corps and was telegraphed by the war department to report for duty, but being in charge of critical private cases at the time she did not accept the war appointment. She is a member of the Iowa State Association of Registered Nurses.
The Mann home has always been noted for its hospitality and the members of the family have ever done their part in promoting the social life of the community. The sons and daughters of the household have remained single but a child, Winifred Mann, has been adopted by Miss Bertha Mann and gives promise of being a credit to the family name.
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