Stanislaus
County
Biographies
WESLEY SMITH MANN
A record as a gallant soldier, an
efficient and faithful public official and an upright and progressive citizen,
fully meets the requirements of the best order of Americanism. Such a record has been made by Wesley Smith
Mann, of Modesto, Stanislaus County, California, who was born on his father’s
farm in Hendricks County, Indiana, October 28, 1845, a son of Frederick and
Elizabeth (Moore) Mann. The Mann’s are
an old family in Scotland, when came Mr. Mann’s grandfather in the paternal
line, who settled in North Carolina, where was born Frederick Mann, who early
in life emigrated to Marion County, Indiana, where he died at the age of
eight-three years. His wife, also of
Scotch ancestry, departed this life in the sixty-fourth year of her age. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and were of the highest character and respectability. Of their ten children six are living, four in
Indiana, one in Texas, and one in California.
Wesley Smith Mann was brought up on
his father’s farm in Indiana and secured the basis of his education in the
public schools near his home. He was
only sixteen years old when President Lincoln issued his first call for
volunteers to put down the slaveholders’ rebellion. The following year the great magnitude of the
strife and the imperative need for more soldiers impelled him, a boy of
seventeen though he was, to bear arms in defense of his country’s honor, and he
enlisted in Company A, Fifty-third Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry,
February 6, 1862, and served through the war by re-enlistment after the
expiration of his first term of service.
He was first in battle at Shiloh, and after that fought at Corinth,
Metamora Heights and at Vicksburg, where he received a ball in the arm June 27,
1863, which he carries to this day. He
participated in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia, where Sherman’s army
was repulsed June 27, 1864, and he was taken prisoner by the enemy. Only thirty-two members of his company were
in this engagement, in which the first and second lieutenants were both
killed. With his captain and the remnant
of his company Mr. Mann endured the horrors of six months’ incarceration in the
Andersonville prison pen. After his
parole he returned home for a time to recuperate and then rejoined his regiment
and had the honor of participating in the grand review at Washington, D. C., of
the victorious Army of the Republic.
After that he went with his regiment to Louisville, Kentucky, where its
members received an honorable discharge from the service, and he was mustered
out at Indianapolis, Indiana, and returned home with the proud record of a
veteran and a victor completed while he was yet in his twentieth year.
After the war Mr. Mann took up
farming in Indiana, and in 1866 he went to Kansas, where he successfully
continued in agriculture until 1874, when he came to Stanislaus County,
California. For five years afterward he
resided at Tuolumne City, manager a ferry for four years and then commenced
banking, which he pursued for sixteen years.
In 1896 he took up his residence at Modesto, where he opened a cash
grocery, an enterprise which has been so prosperous as to place him among the
prominent business men of the town. He
was elected one of the trustees of the city in 1898 and filled the office with
so much ability and devotion to the interests of the people that he was
re-elected in 1900. He is a member of
both branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he and his wife and
daughters are members of the associate order of Rebekah. He is the present chief patriarch of his
encampment. He has been an enthusiastic
member of the Grand Army of the Republic, always active in its work and helpful
to all its interests.
While a resident of Kansas, Mr. Mann
married Miss Rose M. Schumaker, a native of Iowa, and
they have had three daughters: Ettie, who married George Armstrong, of Stanislaus County;
Ida, who is Mrs. A. J. Saferite, of Stanislaus
County; and Lotta, who married S. C. Geer, of
Stanislaus. Mr. and Mrs. Mann have a
pleasant home at Modesto and enjoy the friendship of a large circle of
acquaintances.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 669-670. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2011
Gerald Iaquinta.