Sylvester Hill Mann

From the Desks of the Central Library Staff

He was born May 6, 1817 in upstate New York. Raised in Pennsylvania, Mann was a soldier in a volunteer unit during the Civil War in 1862-1863. His occupation as a Methodist minister took him all over the Pacific Northwest. The Mann family arrived in Oregon’s Willamette River Valley via the Isthmus route in 1864. By 1870 Rev. Mann was sent to Olympia, where he found himself appointed to fill out the Territorial Librarian term of the late Mr. Mabie. He took the oath of office June 21, 1870. As the June 20 issue of the Daily Pacific Tribune reported: “The decease of J.D. Mabie having left this office vacant, Acting Gov. Scott has appointed Rev. S.H. Mann to fill it until the next Legislature convenes. We heartily approve of this appointment, though it is questionable whether the new incumbent will be able to fill it for the unexpired term, as the next Methodist Conference will probably assign him to another field.” There was no “probably” about it. They did. To Seattle. By Aug. 1, his son, C.B. Mann, was taking the oath of office as his replacement. The roughly five weeks of Rev. Mann’s term might be a record for brevity in the office. He was sent to Seattle in 1870-1872, Steilacoom 1872-1874, and finally to Brownsville, Oregon in 1874. He died there Mar. 15, 1876. Considered “somewhat retiring,” his poor health was attributed to his involvement in the Civil War.

[The Territorial Librarian profiles were compiled by Sean Lanksbury, Mary Schaff, Kim Smeenk, and Steve Willis]

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

A few decades ago, back when my family still had a farm out in northwestern Thurston County, my father noticed a small glass object that had surfaced after he plowed the field. The farm had once been home to an inn called “The Hicklin Halfway House” on the stage road between Olympia and Montesano in Territory days. We were used to plowing up small pieces of china and glass. But this was different.

Except for some chips on the opening, this small glass bottle is intact, about 3 inches high, and has the raised label: C.B. Mann, Apothecary, Olympia, W.T.

As it turns out, Champion Bramwell Mann ran a drugstore on the southeast corner of 4th and Washington in Olympia, site of the present Security Building. He was a prominent figure in the local history of the city, even serving as Mayor from 1894-1895. And, believe it or not, he had a short stint as the Territorial Librarian in 1870.

And so did his father, Sylvester Hill Mann. You can read about them and the other colorful characters who kept the flame alive in Washington’s oldest public institution on WSL’s biographical page: The Territorial Librarians.