An old settler and progressive farmer of Cloud county is J.A. Mann, a native of Hawkins county, Tennessee, born in 1842. He is a son of McMinn and Elizabeth L. (Bradshaw) Mann, both of southern birth. His father was an extensive planter in Tennessee and Georgia, moving to the latter state when our subject was a small boy. The Mann ancestry were of Scotch origin, emigrated to America, settled in Virginia in colonial times, and later removed to Tennessee. Mr. Mann's paternal grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812. J A. Mann is the eldest of a family of ten children, seven of whom are living, five in Kansas and the others have drifted to the far west.

Mr. Mann was educated in the subscription schools of Georgia and in 1819 emigrated with his parents to Illinois, where he enlisted in the United States army, under Captain Carmichael of Grant's corps and McClelland's brigade. He served three years, and during that time participated in the battles of Fort Henry, Shiloh, Fort Donelson and many other engagements and skirmishes; came out with several bullet holes in his overcoat, but escaped bodily injury. After the war Mr. Mann returned to his home in Illinois and in 1866, with his parents and two other families, emigrated to Kansas. They came overland with six wagons drawn by ox-teams and were six weeks making the trip. They arrived in July, the grass had been eaten down by the buffalo and was dry and sear, the country was new, the settlers far distant from one another and the prospect was very discouraging. The father's possessions were ten children and one hundred and fifty dollars in money. Mr. Mann had four hundred and fifty dollars. They both took up homesteads on Chriss creek, which takes its name from a man who took up school land at the mouth of that stream in 1860.

Mr. Mann participated in several buffalo hunting expeditions. On one of these trips he started November 15, 1866, and was gone until Christmas, bringing back a wagon load of buffalo meat for his father's family. They killed sixty cows and brought home the hind quarters. They also suffered the loss of a yoke of oxen, which cost one hundred and fifty dollars, from storm and starvation, on this expedition. On one trip to Chapman creek to mill he was delayed by a storm for three weeks, during which time the family lived on meat and hominy, having no flour to make bread. They had made a few improvements and were just getting in a condition where they could exist when the Indian troubles began and they were forced to abandon their home. In 1869 they returned and this year an abundant crop was raised. From this they began to prosper and in 1874 there was not a claim in the country unoccupied. Mr. Mann's father died in 1884 and his mother in 1889.

Mr. Mann sold his homestead in 1887, moved to Oregon, bought a farm which he sold one year later, and then returned to Kansas and purchased a farm three and one-half miles north of Glasco. His farm consists of two hundred and forty acres. Among other improvements there is a fine basement barn. His chief industry is wheat and stock raising. Mr. Mann and his family own a pleasant home in Glasco, where they now reside.

Mr. Mann was married in 1871 to Permelia Snyder, a daughter of Captain Snyder, of Glasco. She was deceased in 1887, leaving seven children, five of whom are living, viz: Henry, foreman of a fine horse ranch near Portland, Oregon; Albert, pilot In the railroad yards in Kansas City; Lewis farms with his father; William, a farmer, and Hattie, a Cloud county teacher. Mr. Mann was married in 1888 to Ella, widow of James Axley, by whom she had two children, Myrtle and William. Mr. and Mrs. Mann are the parents of two bright little girls, Olive and Florence. Mr. Mann is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Grand Army of the Republic.