Mitchell, Hon. Thomas

MITCHELL, BLAKE, GIFFORD, SWIFT, HOXIE, MELLVILLE, MATTERN

Posted By: Daniel K. Higginbottom (email)
Date: 11/14/2014 at 09:41:07

Mitchell, Hon. Thomas--Farmer, section 1, P.O. Mitchellville. Something more than a year before the territory now embraced within the county of Polk was ,according to the treaty stipulations made by the United States government with the Sacs and Foxes, opened for settlement, the subject of this sketch, who is now one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of this county, located twelve miles east of Fort Des Moines, entered a claim and built a comfortable log cabin, which was used as a hotel for a number of years. He was then in the prime of youthful manhood, having been born on the 3d of March, 1816, among the granite hills of Claremont, Sullivan county, New Hampshire, where his early life was spent acquiring those sterling traits of character for which the sturdy sons of New England have so long been noted. His father, William Mitchell, was born near Boston, Massachusetts, and moved to Claremont when about twenty-three years of age. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, as was also his mother, whose maiden name was Dolly Blake, who was a native of Hampton, New Hampshire. When young Thomas was about sixteen years of age his father died, leaving a large family with little means of support. He soon obtained work on a neighboring farm, where he continued to labor for about seven years, completing his limited education by attending district schools in the neighborhood. He started West in November, 1839, and spent the first winter in St. Charles county, Missouri, and in the following March removed to Fairfield, Jefferson county, Iowa, where he continued to reside about four years. In April, 1842, he was elected one of the Commissioners of Jefferson county, and served for two years, when he again removed and located at the crossing of Camp Creek, then Indian country, where he has since continuously resided. In 1846 he helped to organize Polk county and was in the fall of that year elected its first Sheriff. Two years later he ran for Representative, the district containing thirteen counties, but was defeated by Manley Gifford, of Jasper county. He was, however, in 1857, elected to represent Polk and Jasper counties in the first Legislature, which met at Des Moines, and took his seat in the body in January, 1858. He was, during his term in the Legislature, instrumental in procuring the passage of a bill for the straightening of Skunk river, thus redeeming a large area of the richest lands in the county. In 1859 he was elected one of the Supervisors of Polk county, which office he held by re-election for a period of six years. In the fall of 1873 he was nominated and elected to a seat in the upper house of the Iowa General Assembly. He was first married on the 14th of August, 1841, to Almira, daughter of Benjamin Swift, a farmer, then of Thetford, Vermont, by whom he had five children, as follows: Oran F. (lieutenant of company I, Eighth Iowa cavalry, who died at Waverly, Tennessee, on the 8th of March, 1864, aged twenty-two years), Mary Ann (now Mrs. M. R. Hoxie), Charles Mellville (a farmer of this county), and the youngest, Walter A. Mrs. Mitchell died on the 16th of June, 1860, aged about forty years. Mr. Mitchell again married on the 17th of June, 1861, to Anna C. Mattern, by whom he has three children: Harry Herbert, Maud and Johnnie. He is the owner of 1,400 acres of land, about 400 of which he entered of the government.

Source: "The History of Polk County, Iowa", p.936-37. Des Moines, Union Historical Company, 1880.