Brown University is where Horace Mann found his true love, Charlotte Messer, and death brought them back together.

Mann enrolled at Brown University for his sophomore year. At Brown, he developed his worldview and his ideals. The Brown University president's daughter, Charlotte Messer, was the first woman he ever met and fell in love with. In 1830, they married. When she was just 10 years old, Mann had been attached to her since his undergraduate days. Sadly, after two years of marriage, she abruptly passed away, which left him feeling sad. Mann has been emotionally wounded as a result of this for his whole life.

Getting over the unexpected and terrible loss of his first wife, took Horace eleven hard years. Ultimately, in 1843, he wed Mary Tyler Peabody, with whom he had an exceptionally intimate intellectual relationship. They were married until Mann's death in 1859 and had three children together.

On August 2, 1859, Horace Mann passed away. He was buried at Yellow Springs, Ohio, next to Charlotte. After her husband passed away, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann brought their three kids back to Massachusetts. She wrote her husband's biography and edited his unpublished writings throughout the course of the ensuing months. Mary took the initiative to have her husband moved from his original resting place and buried close to his first love, Charlotte.