By LAURIE PERKINS

Michigan History Center

In an age when women barely showed their ankles under their skirts, there appeared in a March 1900 Detroit Free Press article two sentences related to the activities of the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan:

“The annual exercise of the physical training department was held at the gymnasium Monday, evening, and included several new features. The principal exercise of the evening was the dumbbell drill participated in by 200 young ladies.”

Preparing the young ladies in the drill was 26-year-old Mary Ida Mann of Concord, Michigan, a recent graduate of the State Normal School’s physical training department.

Both Mary Ida and her younger sister Jessie Ellen were encouraged by their mother to attend the State Normal School to become teachers. Their mother, Ellen Keeler Mann, attended the school in the mid-1870s to become a teacher herself. Ellen instilled her passion for education deeply in her daughters. Mary Ida taught gymnastics at the college level at both the University of Missouri and the University of Chicago before marrying in 1913.

Jessie Ellen attended the University of Michigan, graduating in 1906 with a degree in mathematics. She taught geometry at Battle Creek High School in Battle Creek, Michigan, for more than 30 years. Jessie Ellen’s mathematics degree served her well in running the family farm after her father’s death in 1900. She kept accounts of the farm’s production and wages of the men she hired to work the farm.

Like their parents, the Mann sisters valued education and lifelong learning. They donated their family home to the state of Michigan in 1970 so that future generations of Concord residents could learn from the past.

Mann House

Today, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Michigan History Center fulfills the Mann sisters’ wishes by carefully preserving their Concord, Michigan, home and the more than 10,000 artifacts representing all aspects of their lives. Located at 205 Hanover Street, the home is open for tours and programs during the summer months and for special holiday events each December.

Built by Daniel and Ellen Keeler Mann in 1884, the bright yellow clapboard and green- trimmed home brought the successful farm family closer to the schools and to the social life of the rapidly growing village of Concord. Settled in 1831, Concord came into its own in the late 19th century. The 1.66-square-mile village located 12 miles southwest of Jackson features narrow, tree-lined streets and Late Victorian-era frame homes, including the Mann House, set on spacious lots.

The family became active in the community and was known for bringing in the latest technology. The Manns installed the community’s first telephone in 1900 and added electricity and indoor plumbing around 1910.

Even after Mary Ida and Jessie Ellen left home for college and jobs, the house in Concord remained their family home. As young adults, the sisters also traveled the world. On a trip to the Philippines to visit a distant relative in 1913, Mary Ida met her future husband, Charles Cady.

The couple married in 1913 and lived in Manila and across the United States until Charles’ death in 1942. Jessie Ellen, who never married, traveled internationally, and decorated the family home in Concord with souvenirs from the trips.

From the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, the sisters lived together, spending their summers in their family home in Concord. They made several renovations over these decades, including constructing an addition to house a modern kitchen.

Today, the historic Mann House looks and feels as if Mary Ida and Jessie Ellen just stepped out for a moment. All their belongings – from their grandmother’s furniture to the family’s extensive library to the clothes in the closets – tell the stories of the independent, self-sufficient, forward-thinking women who lived in this house from 1883 to 1969.

Women’s history education

In 2018, the Michigan History Center began hosting an annual Women’s History Conference at the Mann House and in partnership with other local museums, the public library, churches and the Concord Community Schools.

The conference is held in honor of the Mann sisters and their dedication to education and lifelong learning. It also celebrates Mary Ida and Jessie Ellen as trailblazing women who pursued college education and careers in a time where it was far less common for women to have either.

Every year the conference highlights a different aspect of Mary Ida and Jessie Ellen’s lives. The theme of this year’s conference, which will take place Thursday, Sept. 14, is education. It will be held at the sisters’ alma mater, Concord High School.

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the high school media center. In addition to a keynote address, sessions will include the history of Jackson County’s one-room schools, music and poetry from the Mann family collections and the induction of Concord Community Schools math teachers into the annual “Rose Ceremony,” a highlight of every conference.

To register for the conference, please call 517-930-3806 before Sept. 1. Conference registration is $40 and includes lunch. The registration fee is payable at the door by cash or check only.