MITCHELL, Henry Blake 1818 - 1912

MITCHELL, ROGERS, TOAL, TOOL, WILKIN, DIXON, INGHRAM, ALBAUGH, CORBITT, CULP

Posted By: Joey Stark
Date: 7/8/2006 at 15:01:36

"The Fairfield Tribune"
Wednesday, June 5, 1912
Page 1, Column 1

OLD AND RESPECTED CITIZEN IS DEAD.

Hon. H. B. MITCHELL DIED LAST SUNDAY.

Was Pioneer of Iowa and a Prominent Figure in Jefferson County History -- Funeral Yesterday Afternoon.

The Hon. Henry B. MITCHELL, one of the pioneers of Iowa, passed to his eternal rest at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Uriah B. ROGERS, in this city early last Sunday morning. He had reached the age of nearly 94 years.

Mr. MITCHELL was born at Claremont, New Hampshire, July 5, 1818. He was left an orphan at a tender age and was raised by distant relatives.

Soon after he became of age he came to the Territory of Iowa, then an almost trackless wilderness. When he reached what is now the city of Fairfield, after a long journey on foot, he found a hamlet with one little store and less than a hundred people. It was the first day of November, 1840, and he had his clothes and about one hundred dollars saved from his earnings. He had come to join his brother, Thomas MITCHELL, who came to the west the year before, and who was afterwards the founder of Mitchellville, and later on a prominent citizen of Des Moines, the father of the late Judge John MITCHELL.

Henry MITCHELL was never afraid of difficulties. He entered a tract of land two miles west of Fairfield, using his hundred dollars to make the first payment on it. With his own hands he cleared it and broke it and built a cabin on it, and for fifty-one years it was his home. To it he brought his bride in October, 1847, Maria Elizabeth TOAL (sic - TOOL), the daughter of a pioneer, Thomas TOAL (sic), of Toal's Point, Now Monroe, in Jasper county. They worked together to improve it and make it a home for their family, and a social center and religious light-house in the new country. And they made it all of this, as well as one of the finest homesteads in the state.

Two sons and seven daughters, all married now and heads of families, came to help them, and all survive the parents, together with thirty-three grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. The children are: Mrs. Dolla WILKIN, Fairfield; Effie DIXON, St. Charles, Minn.; J. D. MITCHELL, Fairfield; Helen M. INGHRAM, Osceola; Henrietta ROGERS, Fairfield; Marietta ALBAUGH, Mineral City, Ohio; Addie CORBITT, Seattle, Wash.; Carrie CULP, Fairfield, and Thomas A. MITCHELL, Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Mr. MITCHELL was a man of large intelligence and a great reader. He was one of the first scientific farmers, and took the lead in all advances and improvements. He was a republican before the party was formed and he was steadfast in the faith to his last conscious moment. He was often called to lead and never faltered in the lead. He was sent to the Legislature in 1853, when it met at Iowa City, and the members traveled to the Capitol on foot, though he hired a Pennsylvanian to take him in his big wagon, and walked most of the way.

He was a member of the County commissioners and of the board of Supervisors of the County and their chairman, many times called to guide the business of the public because of the implicit confidence of the people in him.

He was sent to the Legislature again in 1887, at Des Moines. Many other public trusts came to him for the settlement of estates, in the partition of lands and the care of minors. And every trust was well and faithfully performed.

About twenty years ago he removed from his farm to the city of Fairfield, where he passed the later years of his busy life surrounded by his children and grandchildren and friends -- a sage and trusted counselor (sic), enjoying the fruits of his labors and beloved and respected and revered by the entire community.

Two years before him his wife joined the eternal, and after that he waited the call which came in the still hours of the Sabbath.

Funeral services were held at the home of U. B. ROGERS yesterday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock, conducted by Dr. Thomas Osborn, of the M. E. church of this city, and the remains laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery.

*Transcribed for genealogy purposes; I have no relation to the person(s) mentioned.