Horace Mann

In 1830, he married Charlotte Messer, daughter of Brown University’s president Asa Messer. His wife died on August 1, 1832.

Horace Mann married Mary Tyler Peabody in 1843. The couple had three sons - Horace Mann Jr., George Combe Mann and Benjamin Pickman Mann.

He died on August 2, 1859 at the age of 63 years at Yellow Springs, Ohio, U.S. He was buried by the side of his first wife Charlotte Messer Mann in the North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.

On May 4, 1796, Horace Mann was born to Thomas Mannand Rebecca Stanley Mann in Franklin, Massachusetts. His father was a poor Yankee farmer.

As his family faced lots of hardships and poverty, Mann learned to be independent and self-reliant from an early age. From the age of 10 to 20 he could not attend school more than six weeks in any year. However, he self-studied by visiting the Franklin town library.

He was taught Greek and Latin by Samuel Barrett who later became a famous Unitarian minister.

At twenty years of age, he got admission at the ‘Brown University’. In 1819, he graduated as valedictorian. His valedictory address ‘The Progressive Character of the Human Race’ was a representation of philanthropic optimism showing how a combination of education, humanity and republicanism can allay an individual from the beset of wants and deficiencies. He studied law at Wrentham, Massachusetts for a brief period.

From 1820 to 1822 he worked as a teacher of Greek and Latin. He was the librarian of ‘Brown University’ during 1821-23. He studied at the ‘Litchfield Law School’ sometime around 1821-23. In 1823 he was enrolled in the bar of Norfolk County, Massachusetts.

He began his career as a law practitioner and thereafter won a seat at the ‘Massachusetts House of Representatives’ from Dedham, Mass, in 1827 and served till 1833.

He took active interest in public charities, education and laws suppressing intemperance and lottery culture.

He made personal effort and established a lunatic asylum at Worcester and chaired the board of trustees in 1833. He was a member of the revision of the state statutes committee and remained its chairman for a while. Many of his suggestions were incorporated. He shifted to Boston in 1833.

He served as a majority leader in the ‘Massachusetts State Senate’ from 1835 to 1837 and as its president in 1836 after being elected from Boston. He took up different projects aiming at improvement of infrastructure including canals and railroads constructions.

The ‘Massachusetts State Board of Education’, the country’s first board of education, was created in 1837 following an intense reform movement for improving quality of education. He was made its first secretary. After he took responsibility as the secretary he withdrew himself from politics and other professional engagements.

His statue is erected in front of ‘Massachusetts State House’.

A monument at the Antioch College bears his quote, ‘’ Be Ashamed to Die Until You Have Won Some Victory for Humanity”.

Some of the schools named after him are ‘Horace Mann Elementary School’ in Dayton, Ohio, ‘Horace Mann Middle School’ in Franklin, Massachusetts and ‘Horace Mann School’ in Salem, Massachusetts.