Diedrich, D. N. (Duane Norman)

Horace Mann was born on May 4, 1796, in Franklin, Massachusetts, to a poor farming family. He was raised as a Calvinist, though he later rejected the doctrines of the faith and eventually favored Unitarianism. His father died when he was 13 years old. Financial limitations were such that, until the age of 15, Mann was only able to attend school 8-10 weeks per year. Nevertheless, his dedicated use of the small Franklin Town Library and attendance at Williams Academy in Wrentham supplied him with sufficient knowledge to enter Brown University in 1814. He graduated as valedictorian in 1819.

Two years later, in 1821, Mann was admitted as one of about 30 students to the law school of Judge James Gould at Litchfield; he was admitted to the Norfolk County bar in December 1823. Mann lived in Dedham, Massachusetts, where he worked as an attorney until his election as a State Representative in 1827. He used this political position to advocate civil and religious liberty, temperance, and education. While achieving public and professional eminence, he also experienced several tragic events during the next 10 years. His marriage to Charlotte Messer (the daughter of Brown University President, Dr. Asa Messer) in 1830 lasted only two years before her death of tuberculosis. In 1833, the grieving Mann moved from Dedham to Boston, following which he suffered the loss of his mother and two close friends (Silas Holbrook and his father-in-law, Dr. Messer).

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