Manns Choice, Pa.

Manns Choice seems like a poorly spelled and punctuated name for an ill-advised happy hour from a bygone era. It’s also a town name.

In 1848, Congressman Job Mann pressured to have a post office at an unnamed village in Harrison Township. The Post Office Department approved the new post office, but as the village had no name, Congressman Mann was to give it one. Before he did so, postal maps were made with the temporary designation “Mann’s Choice” written on it. The name was never changed, and became the permanent and official one.

And there we have it. No word on where the punctuation tends to go with this kind of thing.

And a real person named Job.

Mann was elected as a Jacksonian to the Twenty-fourth Congress. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1836 to the Twenty-fifthCongress. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1839 and commenced practice in Bedford, Pennsylvania…Mann was again elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1850. He resumed the practice of law and died in Bedford in 1873.

Somebodyisfromhere.com was recently in Bedford. It had a delightful little downtown and Somebodyisfromhere.com had a beer at a place where it is even possible to be called both a newsstand and a pub.

In fact, the town was so nice that Somebodyisfromhere.com was pulled over for speeding and an expired Registration. He got off with directions to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. (He had the registration, it just wasn’t updated on his license plate)