Home of Frank Nixon Mann and Nancy Murray Mann

1621 Fifth Avenue was the home of Frank Nixon and Nancy Murray Mann from around 1920 Nancy Mann's death in 1961. Nancy Murray Mann was a West Virginia suffragette, serving as president of the Huntington Equal Suffrage Association and campaigning for the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. After the suffrage campaign, Mann was active in national politics, first with the Democratic Party and then with the Republicans, supporting the election of Herbert Hoover. 

Nancy Murray was born on August 21, 1868 to Reverend Patrick H. and Sally Murry. She was educated at the Western College for Women in Ohio. Frank Nixon Mann was born to James and Elizabeth Nixon Mann on July 19, 1861. He attended preparatory school in Greenbrier County and then attended Hampden Sidney College in Virginia. Frank and Nancy Mann married on September 21, 1892. The couple had no biological children, but did have two adopted children: Ellsworth Mann and Nancy Mann Johnson.

Frank and Nancy Mann originally lived in Alderson where Frank was a lumber manufacturer and farmer. In 1911, his planning mill burned and the following year the family moved to Huntington. Frank Mann established the Huntington Sash Door and Trim Company with a plant on Nineteenth and Second Avenue.

Nancy Murray Mann was very active in civic organizations in Huntington and the women’s suffrage movement. She was chairman of the Huntington Women’s Club, president of the Huntington Equal Suffrage Association, and was involved in the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association. Mann was also the founder of the Huntington Young Women’s Christian Association and involved with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. During the 1916 referendum campaign on women’s suffrage, Nancy Mann traveled throughout the state as a speaker in support of the suffrage amendment. In 1917, Mann was also elected as vice president of the West Virginia Equal Suffrage Association and worked in the campaign to support the ratification of the 19^th Amendment.

In the 1920s, Nancy Murray Mann was a strong supporter of the Democratic Party, serving as a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1924 and 1928. She switched her political allegiance to the Republican Party during the 1928 campaign, supporting Herbert Hoover and traveling to campaign on his behalf. As a result, in 1930 Hoover appointed her to the board of advisors for the Federal Industrial Institution for Women in Alderson, WV. Mann was also active in the temperance movement and was the only woman to speak at the Anti Saloon League’s Southern convention in 1931.

Frank Nixon Mann died in 1936 at the age of 75. After his death, Nancy was a hostess at the Student Union at Marshall University and served on the board of governors for Greenbrier College for Women. Nancy Murray Mann died on August 27, 1961 at 93 years old. 

“0475: Nancy Murray Mann Papers, 1914-1985.” Guides to Manuscript Collections. Marshall University Special Collections. Accessed February 16, 2022. https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1263&context=sc_finding_aids.

"Biographies, Greenbrier County, WV - "M"." WVGenWeb. Accessed February 16, 2022. https://www.wvgenweb.org/greenbrier/bios/bios-m.htm.

Clevenger, Kendall, and Joseph Hitt. “Biography of Nancy Murray Mann, 1868-1961.” Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920. Accessed February 16, 2022. https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1011147316.