ISAAC THOMAS MANN STORIES
FROM NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
US DEPT. INTERIOR - NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE
A
Bramwell Legend 1863: I. T. Mann was born in Greenbrier County, WV. 1889: I.T. Mann had an apprenticeship at Greenbrier Valley Bank. 1901: I. T. Mann visited financier J. P. Morgan in New York. 1908: I. T. Mann served as a delegate to the Republican national convention. 1912: I. T. Mann was a candidate for the U.S. Senate. 1929: I. T. Mann's business empire collapsed at the onset of the Depression. May 18, 1932: I. T. Mann died in Washington, DC.
From the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, May 19, 1932: The town of Bramwell was shaken by the deaths of two prominent citizens the same day. May 18, 1932, Jairus Collins was pronounced dead at his home in Bramwell at 7 p.m. by Dr. H. B. Luttrell, a well known local physician. Collins suffered from "myocarditis and endocarditis." The 72-year old Jairus, along with his brother Justus, were originally from Alabama but had established themselves in West Virginia as major operators in the sprawling Winding Gulf coal field. By 9:30 that same night, Isaac T. Mann had passed away at his Washington, D.C. home, after having been in ill health for over a year. The 68 year old Mann was president of Pocahontas Fuel Co. and was involved in dozens of other business ventures from the eastern United States to Mexico. A native of Greenbrier County, where he was a banker, Mann was later president of the Bank of Bramwell and sat on boards of a number of other banks regionally. He was a savvy investor whose interests included coal, railways, shipping, timbering and the development of at least one private golf club. Mann was one of the few native West Virginians to leave such a remarkable legacy of business investment, banking, political and social influence in the southern coal industry and beyond. ISAAC
MANN'S WIFW, CLAUDIA "VERNIE"MEYERS MANN ISAAC
MANN'S FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS EARLY
HISTORY OF THE MANN FAMILY "POP" MYERS - FATHER OF MRS. ISAAC MANN
ISAAC T. MANN & JAIRUS COLLINS DEATH NOTICES
ISAAC T. MANN HISTORIC HOUSE 7 MORE BRAMWELL HISTORIC HOUSES ON FLICKR
Stories have circulated about Isaac T. Mann, another Bramwell
millionaire. A native of Greenbrier County, West Virginia, Mann was an extremely powerful figure in the Pocahontas Coalfield, having been the chief organizer of the Pocahontas
Fuel Company and the president of the Bank of Bramwell. He is responsible for the rise
of that bank to a quite formidable institution. Mann and his family lived in Brarnwell for
more than twenty uears, dividing their time between Bramwell, a summer home in
Massachusetts, and a five-story house (later converted into an embassy) in Washington,
D.C. The Mann home in Bramwell was remodeled from a previous structure in 1909 to include
a polygonal sided turret. Mann also built his children a playhouse across the river
from the main house. This is no ordinary playhouse as it was later remodeled and made
into a regular residence by E.L. Keesling, who also planted many beautiful flower
gardens on the playhouse grounds and then charged admission for the public to view
them in the 1950's.
Mann also gave the handson bluestone church building to the
Presbyterian congregation in 1902. According to a survivor of Mann's, he regretted
it later when he heard people refer to the building as "Mr. Mann's church". He is
still strongly identified with that church.
The 1930's depression which was hard felt in the coalfield was
particularly painful to Mann. He had invested in properties in other locations and
lost heavily after 1929. One source says that he was worth 78 million dollars one
day and owed 81 million dollars the next. Regardless of the hard times which befell
Isaac T. Mann, Re seems to be the only person identified with the Pocahontas Coalfield
in the early years who was listed in an edition of Who --- Was Who in America. He was a
leading candidate for the U.S. Senatorship in 1913, but failed of election. The town
of Itmann in Wyoming County was named for him.
The nationwide depression and subsequent closing of the Bank of
Bramwell in the early 1930's signalled the end of an era in Bramwell. This was
followed by the demolition of the Bluestone Inn. The railroad station was abandoned
and torn down sometime in the 1950's. Several operators lost control of their large
sums, like Isaac T. Mann, or were forced zo sell their mines. Many families and
proprietors moved away from Bramwell.
One life-long resident states that "Bramwe11 is certainly not the
town it once was". Even so, Bramwell has stayed remarkably well-preserved, today
mainly serving as a residential town for retired persons and those working in nearby Bluefield and Princeton, WV.
Isaac T. Mann 
