MANN, SAMUEL A., a useful and industrious citizen of Springfield, Ill., was born in Monroe County, W. Va., May 15, 1837, and is a son of Alexander and Isabelle (Stevenson) Mann, both born in Monroe County, he December 13, 1802, and she in 1810. The father was a farmer and spent his entire life in his native State, as did his parents and those of his wife. He was a carpenter, as well as a farmer, and after leaving school his son Samuel worked at that trade with his father until the war. At the age of twenty-one years Samuel A. Mann enlisted in Colonel King's Battalion of Artillery, June 2, 1861, at Monroe County, Va., and served in the Confederate Army to the close of the war, entering under Captain Lowery. He took part in the Battles of Winchester, Fisher Hill, Strasburg, Fayetteville, Charleston, Deep Creek, Berryville (Va.), Shenandoah Valley, and many others. He did his full duty as a soldier in the cause he then believed to be just, but, in the light of later events and his more mature judgment, now feels deep regret that he was not fighting for the other side.

Mr. Mann was married, in Indiana, November 28, 1872, to Miss Sarah Jester, who was born in Iowa, October 2, 1849, daughter of John Jester, a native of Delaware, who moved to Iowa when a boy, and is now living in Indiana. His wife died in Ohio, many years ago. Mrs. Mann's grandparents were natives of Delaware and Iowa and became prominent in the localities where they lived.

Mr. Mann has lived in Sangamon County, Ill., since 1866, and at first worked at nursery business. He is esteemed by his associates and has a good reputation in the community. For several years past he has been employed in the trade of carpenter, at which he is a skillful workman. He is industrious and thrifty and has accumulated some property. He belongs to the Missionary Baptist Church and to a temperance society. He has always taken an active interest in public affairs and in politics is a Democrat. He and his wife became parents of six children: Ella, Daisy, Edgar and Frankie, deceased; Eva May, born in Indiana, August 14, 1873, married Richard Ashcroft, of Riverton, and they have three children, all living - Richard, Stacey and Jessie; Lulu, born in Springfield, May 24, 1880, married Fred Painter, of Springfield, and they have three children - Hazel, Maude and Merrill. The family home is 413 South Thirteenth Street.