My Genealogy Hound

Benjamin W. Mitchell. One of the prominent and early-settled families of Polk County, Mo., was the Mitchell family, who came here some time in the thirties. Rev. Morris Mitchell and wife were early settlers of Knox County, Tenn., from Maryland, and in the thirties came to Polk County, Mo., where they joined their children. Here both died. He lived to see eighteen of the family Methodist preachers, and his wife lived to see 702 of her kinfolks by direct descent and marriage. Rev. James Mitchell, their son, and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a Methodist minister for over sixty years. He was born in Knox County, Tenn., and was of English and German descent. For a companion in life he took Miss Sarah Nave, a native of Virginia, and also of English-German descent. After marriage they lived in East Tennessee until 1834, when they moved to Polk County, Mo. Their family consisted of fourteen children, eight sons and six daughters, Morris Mitchell being the second in order of birth, the same occurring September 17, 1810, in Blount County, Tenn. He never attended school to exceed three months, and then in the old puncheon floor school-house. After reaching manhood, he acquired sufficient education to transact all kinds of business. August 2, 1832, he married Miss Rebecca Ewing, a native of Roane County, Tenn., born in 1812. In 1834 they moved to Polk County, and the following year he was elected justice of the peace, in which capacity he served about twenty-five years. From 1850 to 1852 he was sheriff of Polk County, and in 1856 he was elected assessor. His chief business in life has been farming, at which he has been quite successful, and, although he came to this county in another man’s wagon, and was left here with one horse and eight dollars in money, he arose to the ownership of 500 hundred acres of good land, and is now one of the substantial citizens of the county. He has been a Democrat all his life. In 1872 the town of Morrisville was named in honor of him, and he secured the first office of which he was made postmaster, and which office he held for six years. In 1881 his wife died. In their family were eight children, five sons and three daughters, five of whom are still living. Benjamin W. Mitchell, the youngest but one living, was born in Polk County, Mo., March 24, 1844, and, on reaching manhood, clerked for two years in Bolivar. In 1872 he opened a drugstore in Morrisville, which he carried on until 1881, when he engaged in general merchandising, with T. W. Cunnyngham as partner. They have the largest stock in the town, and, in connection, carry on farming, owning 145 acres adjoining the town. In 1867 he married Miss Anna Hunt, a native of Polk County, who died a year later. For his second wife he chose Miss Cora Robinson, who bore him three children —Morris E., Joseph D., and Roma. He and wife are both members of the Methodist Church, and are active workers in the same. He is a Democrat in politics, is a Royal Arch Mason of Pleasant Lodge No. 160, and has been Worshipful Master of the same for eight years.