MySource:Robert.shaw/Biography of Francis F. Mann

Source:Ellis, Franklin. History of Shiawassee and Clinton Counties, Michigan, p. 330.

Transcript

Francis F. Mann

The family traditions of Francis F. Mann reach back to a time before the French and Indian war, when two brothers, named respectively William and Samuel Mann, came to America. They went back to England, their native land, in a few years, but soon returned to America. Which of these was the ancestor of the subject of this sketch it is impossible to say. His grandfather, Jacob Mann, who was born in 1744, and lived in Wenham, Mass., married Miss Susan Richardson.

While a young man, being afflicted with the rheumatism, he left the farm where he had lived and went to Harvard College, from which he graduated. He was then admitted to the Congregational Church as minister, and was the first located pastor of that denomination in the town of Alstead, N. H. In this place Jacob Mann, Jr., the father of Francis F. Mann, was born in August, 1782. His wife, Miss Phoebe Fisher, was born Sept. 2, 1787. Francis F. Mann was born in the town of Alstead, N. H., Dec. 12, 1808. When he was about three years old his father died, and his mother subsequently married again. He remained at home until he was fourteen, and then went to live with his uncle, Samuel Mann. He subsequently left Alstead and went to Walpole, where he met Laura Robinson, to whom he was married June 29,1836.

The ancestors of Mrs. Mann are traced back to the time when the Pilgrims left England and went to Leyden. She is the descendant of John Robinson, formerly a preacher in the Established Church near Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, and whose sons came to Plymouth in the "Mayflower." John Robinson, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Mann, lived in Connecticut, where Isaiah Robinson, her grandfather, a deacon in the First Baptist Church of Chester, Vt., was born. In 1750 he married Sarah Robins, the daughter of Colonel Robins, who served in the French and Indian war. They lived in Killingly, where, while he was in the Continental Army, her father, Daniel Robinson, was born, Oct. 29, 1776. At the age of sixteen her father moved to Springfield, Windsor Co., where he married Nancy McElroy, Oct. 30, 1798. At this place Laura, the fourth daughter, was born June 9,1809. She subsequently resided with her uncle's family, at Walpole, N. H., where she met F. F. Mann and was married to him, as already stated.

They came to Washtenaw Co., Mich., in October, 1837. Their settlement in Michigan is more fully spoken of in the history of Woodhull township. The following is the record of their children: Mary Omenda, born April 24, 1839; Helen L., born Dec. 20, 1841; Harriet L., born Sept. 25,1851. Adopted children: Amasa F. Chadwick, born Sept. 17, 1846; James O. McClintock, born Oct. 28, 1850; Albert J. Wilcox, born July 14, 1865. Amasa F. Chadwick died in the hospital at Chattanooga, Tenn., June 12, 1864, and was buried in the Soldiers' National Cemetery at that place.

Mr. and Mrs. Mann are kind and hospitable, respected by all who know them, and eminently deserving the brief mention given them in this sketch. They are not members of any church in the township, Mrs. Mann having never severed her connection with the society to which she belonged in the East. They both encourage and favor all societies of Christians the lives of whose members comply with their professions.