BENJAMIN F. MANN, a retired farmer, who is now filling the position of marshal at White Hall, was born in Ohio in 1846. The Mann family is of German lineage and the grandfather, Jacob Mann, died in 1868 at the age of seventy years. His son, Captain Martin J. Mann, was a farmer by occupation and very successful in business. At the time of the Civil war, however, he responded to the call for troops and joined the Union army. At the battle of Shiloh he suffered wounds, the effects of which caused his death in February, 1871. During the war he was taken prisoner and later was paroled. When hostilities had ceased he returned to Greene county and resumed his farming operations, but soon afterward located in White Hall and in 1866 he established his home in Kansas, purchasing land where the town of Baxter Springs is now located. He became quite wealthy through his investment there, but he lost heavily in the financial panic which swept throughout the west in 1870. He married Elizabeth Baldwin, a daughter of Judge Benjamin and Martha (Varner) Baldwin. The Baldwin and Varner families were of German and Scotch lineage. Judge Baldwin was one of Greene county's most distinguished and honored citizens. He was a Virginian by birth and in 1849 came to Illinois, settling in Greene county upon the Henry Robley farm. His wife, who was born in Newtown, Ohio, in 1814, died upon that place in 1858. Two years later Judge Baldwin left the farm and took up his abode in White Hall, where his death occurred February 13, 1865. His wife, long surviving him, passed away in 1885. Their daughter, Mrs. Martin J. Mann, died in 1858.

Benjamin F. Mann, son of Captain Martin and Elizabeth (Baldwin) Mann, remained upon the home farm until about fourteen years of age, when his father removed with the family to White Hall. After completing his own education he engaged in teaching school, following that profession between the years 1874 and 1884. He served as teacher and principal of the high schools in Belltown, Virden, Appolona and other schools and was very successful and popular as an educator. Subsequently he purchased a farm and carried on agricultural pursuits for fourteen years with creditable success, at the end of which time he removed to Carrollton in the year 1897.

He was married in July, 1876, to Miss Laura Bowman, a daughter of Dr. A. Bowman, now a retired physician of White Hall. Mrs. Mann died in 1898 and the following year Mr. Mann removed to White Hall, where he has since made his home. Six children were born of this union, namely: Ernest, Lillian, Myra, Benjamin, Abbie and Howard.

Mr. Mann was reared in the faith of the Universalist church but does not belong to any religious or fraternal organization. In politics he is a stanch Democrat, doing everything in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. He has always had the respect and esteem of his neighbors and has been honored by election to public office. He served as school director while living upon the farm, acting in that capacity for six years, and from 1888 until 1892 he was justice of the peace. He has been marshal during the greater part of his residence in White Hall and though now fifty-eight years of age he is yet a young man, well preserved and having the vigor and appearance of one much younger. The greater part of his life having been passed in this locality, his history is well known to many and those who are acquainted with him entertain for him high regard.