Born at
Acton, Canada West, Mann studied as a
Methodist minister but worked in lumber camps in
Parry Sound District and
Michigan for eight years before moving to
Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1879. Mackenzie and Mann took up the offer, and began the process of purchasing and building such lines. with other unconnected lines as far east as
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, which would form Canada's second
transcontinental railway system. Financial difficulties eventually resulted in the
insolvency of the CNoR. It was nationalized by the federal government on September 6, 1918, and became the
Canadian National Railway. Mann developed other business opportunities on his own, which included coal mines and a related railway in
Inverness County, Nova Scotia, the
Winnipeg Street Railway, and multiple public utilities in
Monterrey, Mexico. Mann turned to oil drilling. He leased land in the
Township of Vaughan, near the village of
Concord, and sank a well in November 1922. In the spring of 1928, instead of oil, he found mineral water. Under the name Ontario Mineral Waters Ltd. he bottled and sold it as a health tonic named "Raysol Radium Water" effective against a variety of ailments including diabetes, angina, tuberculosis and rheumatism. $1 a bottle or $3 a gallon. The venture failed ostensibly because the water was very salty. Mann died in 1934 at the age of 81, and was buried at Fairview Cemetery in Acton. ==Legacy==