Sam Wann

Samuel Wann was born in Ireland about 1820. He was the son of John and Eleanor Wann of Markethill, Co Armagh. In about 1840 Sam left Ireland to live in America. He married Jane Gamble and they lived on Staten Island, New York. For a short time they lived in Georgetown, Colorado when Sam was the superintendant of the United States General Smelting and Mining Company.

Among the friends who visited Sam and Jane Wann at 'Homeland', their Staten Island home, was Anna Matilda Whistler, the mother of the painter James Whistler. In 1872 Sam and his wife visited Anna Whistler in London and at the Royal Academy viewed the famous portrait which James Whistler had painted of his mother.

There were no children of this marriage. Sam Wann died in Manhattan, New York 1905. He and Jane Wann are buried in the Moravian Cemetery, Staten Island.