rank of lieutenant, remaining in the service until late in the spring of 1781. He was the eighth son of Seth Mitchell, who was born in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, in 1715, and was married in 1738 to Ann Latham, a descendant of Robert Latham, who married Susannah Winslow, a daughter of John and Mary (Chilton) Winslow. Seth Mitchell died in 1802. He was the fifth son of Thomas Mitchell, who married Elizabeth Kingman in January, 1696. She was born in 1673 and was a descendant of Henry Kingman, who came from Wales in 1632. Thomas Mitchell departed this life in 1727. He was the second son of Jacob Mitchell, who married Susanna Pope, November 7, 1666, and according to the records settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, but afterward moved to Dartmouth, where he and his wife were both killed by Indians in July, 1675, at the commencement of King Philip's war. The lives of their three children were saved, as the children had been sent to the garrison the previous evening. They were taken to Bridgewater and brought up by an uncle. Jacob Mitchell's father, Experience Mitchell, came from Holland with the Pilgrim fathers in the third ship, the Ann, in 1623, and settled at Plymouth. In 1631 he moved with Miles Standish to Duxbury and later to Bridgewater. He had a share in the first division of lots at Plymouth in 1623, he and George Morton together receiving eight acres. He also had a share in the division of live stock among the colonists in 1627. He was one of the proprietors of Bridgewater, also one of the company that purchased the rights of the original proprietors of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. His wife before her marriage was Jane Cook, a daughter of Francis Cook, and their family consisted of four sons and four daughters. One daughter married James Shaw, another married George Haywoods and a third became the wife of John Washburn, one of the ancestors of the noted Washburn family of the present day. Mr. Mitchell died in 1689. Many of his descendants are now to be found in Maine, Massachusetts and also in various other parts of the United States.
Rotheus H. Mitchell, the subject of this review, received his preliminary education in the public schools and also became a student in St. Lawrence Academy at Potsdam, New York. He learned the millwright's trade, which he followed a number of years in the summer months, teaching in the winter. However, he came to the conclusion that the west offered special inducements to young men and in 1856 he entered the stream of emigration that was then pouring across the Mississippi river and arrived in Story county, Iowa, where he decided to establish his home. His abilities soon met with recognition and he was appointed deputy county surveyor, filling the position so acceptably that at the next election he was elected county surveyor, which office he held four terms. In 1865 he was elected county judge and in 1874 was again selected as county surveyor, which position he held for many years. He passed away May 15, 1891, having then attained the age of sixty-eight years and having for more than thirty years been prominently connected with the county.