John B. Mann, of Grand Junction, the efficient and accommodating clerk of Mesa county, came into being in the midst of our Civil war, having been born in 1863, in Fremont county, Iowa, the son of Archibald and Drucilla Ann (Williamson) Mann, natives of Virginia. The father while yet in his childhood moved with his parents to Indiana where he was reared and educated, attending the public schools and also the college of Greencastle. He remained at home, occupied in the work on the paternal farm until 1859, when he located a place of his own in Iowa, and there by industry and thrift he prospered and reared a family of children numbering nine, seven of whom are living. He was endowed by nature with force of character and self-reliance, and with a commendable independence of thought and action; and these qualities have made him successful in life’s battle and given him prominence and influence among the people of his community where he is generally respected after a long life of usefulness. He is still a resident of Iowa and retired from active pursuits, having reached the age of seventy-six. His wife is also living, at the age of seventy-two. Her birth-place was the historic old town of Lynchburg, Virginia, where her family have been people of consequence from colonial days. Her parents were Henry and Drucilla (Best) Williamson, and they emigrated from their native state to Missouri and later to Iowa where they died at venerable ages. John B. Mann is the fifth child of his parents and passed his boyhood and youth and received his education in Iowa, being graduated from the Indianola Commercial College in that state in 1886. In the spring of 1887 he came to Colorado, and after living a few months at Salida, removed to Grand Junction and accepted employment as a clerk and salesman in the grocery store of his brother, A. G. Mann. Being a young man of energy and ambition, he found a fruitful field for his for his capacities in politics, and became an ardent worker in the Republican ranks, in which his services have been so effective and so highly appreciated that in 1902 he was nominated as the candidate of his party for the office of county clerk, and he was elected by a good majority at the ensuing election. Since taking charge of the office he has been performing its important duties with assiduity and skill, giving its patrons general satisfaction by his promptness, ability and courtesy, and looking well to the interests of the county. He was not, however, without experience in public office, having served as deputy assessor under G. W. Caldwell in 1896 and 1897. In fraternal relations he was active in the Masonic fraternity, in lodge and chapter, in the Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. In 1898 he was married to Miss Sarah D. McCarry, a native of Virginia and daughter of C. P. and Mary (Wiggan) MCarry, of Denver. Mr. Mann is a young gentleman of unusual promise and ability, and with his enterprise and zeal and the popular qualities which he possesses in large measure, he would seem to have a future of prominence and influence in the rising section of the country in which he has cast his lot. He enjoys the confidence and esteem of the people on every hand, and is well worth of their highest regard.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.