While we may be fairly (or vaguely) familiar with our Mannon Line beginning with Alfred T. Mannon & Marion Hickson (Grandad & Nana), we have only recently begun to identify our Mannon Ancestors who came before 1900. Here are the high points of what we’ ve learned so far.
The first of our Mannon ancestors that we can verify today is James Mannon, born June 13, 1789 in New Castle County, Delaware. We don’t know James’ parentage definitively. However, the only Mannon we can find in Delaware in the 1790 U.S. Census and in early Delaware Tax lists is a Benjamin Mannon. Benjamin first appeared in the tax records in Appoquinimink Hundred, New Castle County in 1785. He appears in the 1800 census as head of a household of 2 adults and 8 children. We still have a lot of work to do here, obviously.
A Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware states that James Mannon was of Irish descent and was a farmer all of his life. James Mannon married Elizabeth Walls on April 10, 1832 at the age of 42. Elizabeth was the daughter of James and Annie Walls and was born October 18, 1812 (22 years younger than James). James and Elizabeth moved to a farm in Blackbird Hundred, Delaware where they settled and had 6 children – 4 boys and 2 girls. There is strong evidence that Elizabeth Walls may have been James’ second wife, but that is a story for another day – the day after we figure it out!
The third son of James and Elizabeth, born in March 1841, was Alfred Thomas Mannon. This would have been the FIRST Alfred Thomas Mannon in our ancestry. Alfred was only 15 when his father, James, died. He moved with his mother to Duck Creek Hundred, Delaware and enrolled as a winter pupil in the public schools in Smyrna, Delaware. When he was twenty-one, on November 26, 1863, Alfred enlisted in the Delaware Volunteer Cavalry, 1st Regiment, Company D at Smyrna. He was encamped at Monocracy, Maryland, where he contracted rheumatism and deafness. He was mustered out of service on June 30, 1865, according to his pension papers.
Alfred married twice, first to Mary Ann Whitcraft on December 27, 1866. Mary Ann was born October 15, 1844 to James and Rebecca Whitcraft. Mary Ann was a small child when her mother, Rebecca, died and she was sent to live with the Lyman family of Newport, Delaware. She was reared a Methodist and taught the art of dress designing. She was a fine seamstress.
Alfred and Mary Ann were married at the Asbury Parsonage in Wilmington, Delaware , and we find mention of them initially settling near Newark, Delaware in far western New Castle County. They eventually moved to a farm in Pond’s Neck near Cecilton, Maryland. Then, in 1874, Alfred and Mary Ann moved again with their first four children to William Knight’s farm on the Bohemia River. Here Alfred was employed as the farm overseer and he supervised several foremen and farm laborers. The farmhouse still stands and is listed on the Maryland Register of Historic Places.
Alfred and Mary Ann had eight children – five boys and three girls. George Henry Mannon, our great-grandfather was the eldest. One son was named Alfred Thomas Mannon, Jr. and he died at the age of 5 in 1881. This would have been the second Alfred Thomas Mannon, who most probably inspired George to name his eldest Alfred Thomas Mannon (Granddad). One other son, Herbert, died in infancy in 1883, eight months before Mary Ann Whitcraft Mannon, Alfred’s wife, passed away at age 39.
There is information that Mary Ann Whitcraft Mannon was “insane” and had spent a “considerable while” in Kirkbride’s Insane Asylum, where she had to be confined to her room. She had tried to set herself on fire and was badly burned. Alfred Mannon stated at one point that he thought his wife had a brother and sister who were also “not right in their minds”. He also stated that his own mother had been “insane” for a “long number of years.” This would be interesting to research….Maybe it explains something………….
Alfred was married again to Addie Gertrude Bryn on June 16, 1885 and they had three daughters together. Alfred and Addie moved in 1889 when Alfred bought a farm along the old Telegraph Road in Appleton, MD. He apparently lived there until his death on January 10, 1910. A cousin’s biography states this about our great-great grandfather: “Alfred T. Mannon, a self-made man, was one of few words; a shrewd one in business deals; a Methodist at heart; a republican; a very stern father; and, one of the most able farmers in the community.” Alfred is buried in a family plot at the Head of Christiana Cemetery in Newark, Delaware.
George Henry Mannon, our great-grandfather , had an undoubtedly traumatic experience when he was 18. In March 1886, George was involved in the murder of an Englishman, William Green, in Chesapeake City , MD….not too far from the Knight farm. George and one other man were arrested and brought to trial in Elkton, Maryland. George was acquitted and the other man was convicted in a trial that was covered in excruciating detail by the local press. With the help of the Cecil County Historical Society and a lot of searching through newspapers, we have been able to completely reconstruct the entire story from the murder to George’s trial and eventual acquittal. The incredible detail that newspapers reported in those days makes for very interesting reading ….but, we will save all that for another post.
George Mannon married May Reiff Williamson on May 8, 1894 in Philadelphia. In the 1900 Federal Census, George and May were still living in Philadelphia with the two eldest of their three children, Clara Belle and Alfred Thomas Mannon (Granddad). Their third son, Hamilton Williamson, was born in 1902. By the 1910 Census, the family was living in the Bronx, Assembly District 35, New York and George was working as a Railway Conductor.
May Williamson Mannon died June 17, 1917 in New York at the age of 46. Uncle Bob remembers that Granddad adored his mother. He would have been 17 when she died. George died November 3, 1934 in White Plains, New York at the age of 67. Our fathers (at a family reunion in 1994) could remember very little about their grandfather: they thought he had worked for a while as a security guard at Granddad’s movie studio and he had a potbelly. My dad remembered an occasion when young Bob, aged 3 or 4, pointed to his grandfather’s large stomach and asked, “Is that all full?” Uncle Bob reflects that Granddad was always against drinking and he thought that was because his own father was an alcoholic.
This brings us to Granddad’s and our fathers’ generations, where there are a lot of stories and photos. Stay posted………….
Great job, Leslie!