In October of the year 1767, the township of Coleraine was one of the original five townships formed within Cumberland County's frontier region. Coleraine Township stretched from Evitts Mountain in the west to the eastern slope of the mountain range composed of Town Hill in the south and Rays Hill in the north. The township stretched from Johns Branch of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River and Harbor Mountain in the north to the provincial boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland in the south.
Providence Township was formed out of the northern part of Coleraine in 1783. At that time, Providence included the present-day East and West Providence, Snake Spring and Monroe Townships
In the year 1799, Southampton Township was formed by the drawing of a surveyed line from the southeast at a point a short distance south of McKees Gap in Town Hill to the northwest where it intersected with Tussey Mountain a short distance north of Martin Hill that connects Evitts Mountain to Tussey.
Mann Township was formed on the 8th day of December 1876 out of the eastern third of Southampton Township. The boundary line basically followed the summit of Ragged Mountain until it reached Big Mountain and along its summit to the west slope of Kinser Heights / Snyder's Ridge.
There was an effort, started in 1837, to have a new township formed out of the eastern part of Southampton Township. That effort, though, did not succeed through the court. Twenty-nine residents of the eastern third of Southampton Township petitioned the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Bedford on 28 November 1837:
The Petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the township of Southampton in said County Humbly Sheweth That from the large bounds of Said Township it being nearly forty miles long from East to West. Your Petitioners labour under great inconvenience, in their Township affairs, and as the Legislature has given a new election district in the East end of Said Township, which has eased us of some inconvenience, but many yet remain, for the removal of which we pray the Honorable Court To Divide To appoint Proper persons to view & lay out the Same as follows. Commencing at or near James Layton's and running a N80W west Course, So far as to include the House of Jacob Miles, thence a Due South Course to the Maryland Line, thence round the lines of the East end of the Township to the place of Beginning. The Said new Township to be called Harrison Township, and your Petitioners in duty bound will ever pray, &c.
The court, on 17 April 1838, appointed William Piper, Benjamin Martin and Charles Ashcom as commissioners to view the boundaries of the proposed new township and report back. During the August Session of 1838, it was reported that Charles Ashcom was sick, William Piper had been notified, but did not attend, so the Court appointed Amos McDaniel and Christopher Ensley to substitute for them. A new order "to view and examine the lines and boundary of the said new township" was issued by the Court. The order was continued to 26 November 1838 and apparently dropped by the Court after that. No additional orders were issued at that time. Over a decade would pass before the subject was broached again.
In 1852, the issue was brought up again during the August Session. The petition this time asked that the dividing line be run:
"commencing at the Maryland line on the summit of the Polished Mountain & Running thence Northward with the Summit of said Mountain to where the Public Road from Chaneysville to Hancock Crosses the same, And thence Northward to the line of Monroe Township at the farm of Mr. Hezekiah Barkman."
The petitioners requested that the east portion retain the name of Southampton, and that the west portion by named 'Jefferson.' Two of the three men commissioned to view and examine the boundary line (John W. Lingafelter and Patrick Donahoe) returned their report on 13 November 1852. The Court did not act upon this request. It would be another twenty-four years before the Court would grant the petition to divide Southampton in two. When it did finally agree to form another township out of a portion of Southampton, the Court named it neither Harrison nor Jefferson. Instead, it was named Mann Township.
Mann Township was named in honor of Job Mann. Job Mann was born in Bethel Township, Bedford County in 1795. He served as a member of the United Statets House of Representatives during 1835 and 1836. His political leaning was Jacksonian. Prior to that, between 1818 and 1835, he served as the Register, Recorder and Clerk of the Bedford County Court. Mr. Mann studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1839. He started a practice in Bedford, but in 1842 he began a six year term as State Treasurer. He then, in 1847, was again re-elected to Congress as a Democrat. The honorable Job Mann was a well-respected figure in Bedford County.
