Representative Job Mann

Job Mann (March 31, 1795 – October 8, 1873) was a Jacksonian and later Democratic politician who served multiple terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and held several important state and local offices. He was born in Bethel Township, Pennsylvania, on March 31, 1795. Little is recorded about his family background, but he was raised in rural Pennsylvania and attended the common schools, receiving the basic education typical of the period. He later pursued further studies at the Bedford Academy in Bedford, Pennsylvania, which provided him with the foundational learning that supported his subsequent career in public service and the law.

Mann entered public life at an early age through local government service in Bedford County. In 1816 he was appointed clerk to the board of county commissioners, a position that introduced him to county administration and public finance. Two years later, in 1818, he assumed a broader set of responsibilities when he became register, recorder, and clerk of Bedford County, Pennsylvania. He held these combined offices from 1818 to 1835, overseeing the recording of deeds and other legal instruments, the registration of wills and estates, and various clerical functions of the county government. This long tenure in county office established his reputation as an experienced local official and helped build the political base that would support his later electoral campaigns.

Building on his local prominence, Mann was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. His service in that Congress reflected his alignment with the Jacksonian Democratic principles of the era, including support for a more expansive role for the common voter and skepticism toward concentrated financial power. He sought to continue his congressional career but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1836 to the Twenty-fifth Congress. After this defeat, he turned his attention to the study of law, a common path for politically active men of his generation seeking to deepen their professional qualifications.

Mann pursued legal studies following his initial period in Congress and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He commenced the practice of law in Bedford, Pennsylvania, where he had already established strong community ties through his earlier county service. His legal practice ran alongside continued involvement in state politics. He served as the 16th Treasurer of Pennsylvania from 1842 to 1845, an office that placed him in charge of the state’s finances during a period marked by fiscal challenges and the lingering effects of earlier public works and banking controversies. In addition to his executive role at the state level, Mann also served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, further extending his influence in state legislative affairs and reinforcing his standing within the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania.

Mann returned to national office later in his career as the political landscape evolved from the Jacksonian era into the broader Democratic Party framework. He was again elected, this time as a Democrat, to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses, resuming his service in the U.S. House of Representatives. His later congressional tenure reflected the continuity of his Democratic affiliation and his sustained engagement with national issues in the years leading up to the sectional crises of the 1850s. After serving these consecutive terms, he was not a candidate for renomination in 1850, choosing instead to withdraw from the pursuit of further congressional office.

Following his final departure from Congress, Mann resumed the practice of law in Bedford, where he continued to live for the remainder of his life. His long association with Bedford and the surrounding region left a lasting imprint on the local landscape. The town of Manns Choice, Pennsylvania, was named after him by default. In 1848, while serving in Congress, Mann pressed for the establishment of a post office at an unnamed village in Harrison Township. The Post Office Department approved the new post office, but because the village had no settled name, Congressman Mann was to supply one. Before he did so, postal maps were printed using the temporary designation “Mann’s Choice.” The provisional name was never altered and became the permanent and official name of the town, commemorating his role in its creation.

Job Mann died in Bedford, Pennsylvania, on October 8, 1873. At the time of his death, he was remembered as a long-serving public official who had held county, state, and federal offices over the course of several decades. He was interred in Bedford Cemetery, in the community where he had practiced law, held local and county offices, and to which he had remained closely connected throughout his life.