This coming Wednesday will mark the centenary of the birth of Hugh Mann, one of the Northern Neck’s genuine originals. Hugh was born as the youngest of three boys in Detroit, Michigan, on July 2, 1925. He grew up there and matriculated for two years at the University of Detroit, where he was pursuing a degree in engineering.
As the war in Europe was progressing, Hugh left school to enlist in the U. S. Army. As soon as his basic training was completed, he was shipped off to England to prepare for the forthcoming invasion of France. His unit was dispatched across the English Channel a week later. On July 3, the day after his 19th birthday, the unit was advancing against heavy enemy fire in the Cherbourg Peninsula, when he was struck by a round of mortar fire, with shrapnel nearly severing both of his arms.
Fortuitously he was able to be evacuated to England where field surgeons pieced him back together, after which he was sent home to America. Once here, he spent two years in a military hospital undergoing numerous procedures designed to regain the use of his limbs. The surgeons successfully reattached his left elbow above its former position and rebuilt the muscles on his right arm. As a result, he regained the use of his hands.
With his release from the hospital, his parents decided to look for a quiet, rural setting in which to live, and they decided upon the Northern Neck, buying a tract of land on Barrett’s Creek off the Great Wicomico River in suburban Wicomico Church. Hugh and his father built a house there, and the three of them moved into their new home.
Despite the severity of his injuries, and his military status listing him as disabled, Hugh was determined to lead a productive life. With his two years of engineering background as a basis, he studied and earned an electrician and a plumber’s license.
His parents died a few years after their arrival in the Northern Neck, leaving Hugh here by himself. He became the go-to local resource for anyone facing plumbing or electrical problems. He also wired and plumbed many new houses.
His car was his office, and customers complained that he never sent a bill. Often the customer would have to try to figure out what Hugh’s work was worth, and then send him a check, which produced a new problem, i.e., getting him to cash it. When one looked for a handyman to fix an appliance, Hugh was the first person called. Regrettably for his customers, in Hugh’s time, speed-dialing had not been invented.
In his spare time, Hugh pursued an abiding passion, raising horses. He had several that were pets that he rode around his farm and a couple that were Standard Breeds that he entered in some races. His horses won no sweepstakes, but he found great pleasure in caring for them. Nearly every conversation with Hugh contained some reference to how the horses were doing.
Boating was another of his pastimes. His favorite watercraft was a sunfish, which he would sail up and down the Great Wicomico River, from his “summer home” at Sandy Point. He became an excellent sailor and a good student of the tides and weather conditions. Hugh was tremendously intellectually curious. He read voraciously, and his interests were wide.
He delighted in the challenge of exploring new word usages, as well as quipping back and forth with his friends. Once I told him that if he had had a sister, and he had been her favorite brother, and if she had married a man whose surname was Beane, and if she had named a son after Hugh, the child’s name would have been Hugh Mann Beane. He smiled and retorted, “Yeah, but she might not have liked me that much.”
Ten years ago, Hugh died five days short of his 90th birthday. He overcame extreme adversity in his past, which he turned into a productive and happy life in service to others.
