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Birth
Horace Mann was born on May 4, 1796 in Franklin, Massachusetts. -
Graduates From Brown
At the age of 20, he enrolled at Brown University and graduated in three years as valedictorian -
Elected to Mass. legislature
Mann was elected to the legislature in 1827, and in that body was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of intemperance and lotteries -
Marriage & wife's death
In 1830, Mann married Charlotte Messer, who was the daughter of the president of Brown University. She died two years later on August 1, 1832, -
Established asylum & became chairman board of trustees
He established through his personal exertions the state lunatic asylum at Worcester, and in 1833 was chairman of its board of trustees. He continued to be returned to the legislature as representative from Dedham until his removal to Boston in 1833 -
Mass. Senate
He was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate from Boston in 1833, and was its president in 1836–1837. As a member of the Senate, he spent time as the majority leader, and aimed his focus at infrastructure, funding the construction of railroads and canals.[8] -
Secretary of board of education
It was not until he was appointed secretary in 1837 of the newly created board of education of Massachusetts (the first such position in the United States) that he began the work which was to place him in the foremost rank of American educators. Previously, he had not shown any special interest in education. -
He founded and edited The Common School Journal
public should no longer remain ignorant; that education should be paid for, controlled, and sustained by interested public; that education will be best provided in schools that embrace children from a variety of backgrounds; that education must be non-sectarian; that education must be taught by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society; and education should be provided by well-trained, professional teachers. Mann worked for more, better equipped school houses, longer school years -
Re-married
In 1843, he married Mary Tyler Peabody. Afterward, the couple accompanied Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe on a dual honeymoon to Europe. Horace and Mary had three sons: Horace Mann Jr., George Combe Mann, and Benjamin Pickman Mann. -
Elected into U.S Congress
In the spring of 1848 he was elected to the United States Congress as a Whig to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams. His first speech in that body was in advocacy of its right and duty to exclude slavery from the territories, and in a letter in December of that year he said: "I think the country is to experience serious times. -
Nominated Govt.
In September 1852, he was nominated for governor of Massachusetts by the Free Soil Party, and the same day was chosen president of the newly established Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio. Failing in the election for governor, he accepted the presidency of the college, in which he continued until his death. -
Death
He collapsed shortly after the 1859 commencement and died that summer. Antioch historian Robert Straker wrote that Mann had been "crucified by crusading sectarians." Ralph Waldo Emerson lamented "what seems the fatal waste of labor and life at Antioch." Mann's wife, who wrote in anguish that "the blood of martyrdom waters the spot," later disinterred his body from Yellow Springs.
