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Joseph G. Mann (1864-1932) was born in Broad Brook, Connecticut, and died
in Saint Petersburg, Florida. His first occupation was as a farm laborer. In 1886, after
he was accidentally shot in the heart and told by doctors he would not survive, he was
healed through Christian Science treatment. Mann's affidavit of this healing was
published in the book We Knew Mary Baker Eddy. This healing inspired him, along with
many of his family members, to begin the study of Christian Science. Mann took Mary
Baker Eddy's Primary course in 1888 and her Normal course in 1898. He joined The First
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 5, 1892, and he also
became a member of the Christian Science Dispensary Association, the Christian Scientist
Association, the General Association of Teachers, and the National Christian Scientist
Association. In the late 1880s and early 1890s he lived with two of his brothers in
Junction City, Kansas, where he helped organize a Christian Science church and began
teaching students. He was listed as a practitioner in Junction City in
The Christian Science Journal from 1890 to 1893. In 1894 he moved to Boston,
Massachusetts, where he lived with his sister, Pauline Mann, and continued his healing
practice. Joseph and Pauline both began working in Eddy's Pleasant View household in
1898, with Joseph serving as Eddy's superintendent and associate secretary off and on
until 1907. In 1904, Joseph and Pauline relocated to New Britain, Connecticut, and
Joseph worked as a practitioner and teacher there. In 1920, in New York, New York, he
married Alice Temple Mann (b. Newman), also a Christian Science practitioner, who had
emigrated from England in 1905, and they continued living in New Britain until 1924 when
they moved to West Haven, Connecticut. They finally settled in Saint Petersburg in the
early 1930s. Mann was a frequent contributor to
The Christian Science
Journal and the
Christian Science Sentinel.
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