Barney Etheldred Mitchell, born on 20 May 1836, was the 2nd child of Benjamin William Mitchell (BW) and Mary Elizabeth Stanley (ME). James Stanley Mitchell was the 4th child of BW and ME, born on 27 June 1845. Family legend says that Barney and his brother James set out in 1870 from Snow Hill, NC to walk to California. Some family members said that they were going to the gold rush. Whether they actually thought they could walk to California or, they wound up in Lonoke, Arkansas. There is nothing to tell us why they stopped there, but they did and set down roots in Arkansas.
Barney Etheldred Mitchell
It’s hard to think about walking such a long distance. Barney had been shot in the thigh at Chancellorsville during the civil war and his femur bone had been broken. That wound gave him trouble all his life, so it seems it would have been difficult for him to walk so far. James’s civil war military records show that he had rheumatism, so it must have been difficult for him to walk such a distance, perhaps having to sleep on the ground in all kinds of weather.
Unfortunately, there are no records to tell us about their journey or why they left Greene County. We know that the 1870’s were difficult for everyone in the south after the war, so perhaps that is part of it. Maybe they felt there would be a better way to make a living further west. We know that James was unmarried, so he could have been having an adventure, and hoping to make his fortune in another place besides NC. Barney, however, had a wife and two children in Greene County. He had been teaching school there, and he could have thought that there would be more opportunity for his little family in a new area.
James Stanley Mitchell
What we do know is that James married by October 1872. He married Mary Delilah Hodges and settled in Pulaski County, Lonoke, Arkansas. Barney did return to NC to get his family. His oldest child, Allene, said that they made the trip to AR in a wagon taking their cow with them. She remembered that they would put cream in a covered bucket, tied it on the back of the wagon, and when they stopped at night they would have a nice pat of butter for their bread.
Whatever their reasons for leaving North Carolina, we have to admit they had a lot of courage to take on such a journey.
Maggie
Maggie
Dr. B. E. Mitchell, local minister and physician, Chapel Hill, Ark. This much esteemed citizen and successful physician was born in Green County, N.C., May 20, 1836, and was the second of fourteen children -- six sons and eight daughters -- nine who lived to be grown, born to the union of Rev. Benjamin W. and Mary (Stanley) Mitchell, both natives of Green County, N.C. the former born in 1812 and the latter in 1817. The father is still living in the neighborhood of his birth, but the wife died in 1882; both Free Will Baptists for many years, and Mr. Mitchell a minister since soon after the war. Until that time he had been a lawyer of considerable ability, and was at one time sheriff of Sevier County. The paternal grandfather. Etheldred Mitchell, was also born in Green County, N.C. where he spent all his life, his death occurring about 1834. He was a farmer and lawyer. His wife was also a native of the same county and there died; she was of Irish descent. The maternal grandfather, Baruey Stanley, was originally from Sampson County, N.C. and died in that State. He was a trader. His wife, Sallie Pridgin, was also born in North Carolina. and there passed her last days. He was of Irish Scotch and she of Dutch descent. Dr. B. E. Mitchell was reared principally in a store, and received his education for the most part in Lenoir Institute, being educated for the ministry. At the breaking out of the war, however, he left school and enlisted in the Confederate army as hospital steward, bnt was afterward make assistant surgeon, which position he filled for about eighteen months in different places. He was severely wounded at Chancellorsville, and was with Stonewall Jackson when he received his fatal wound. He was in the Virginia army all through the war, and surrender at High Point, N.C., in April 1865. After this he taught school for a short time, and in December, 1865, was married to Miss Millie Rouse, a native of Green County, N.C., and the daughter of Abner and Harriet Rouse, natives also of the same county where Mrs. Rouse still lives. Mr. Rouse is deceased. Mrs. Mitchell died on March 19, 1877, in Pulaski County, Ark., when but twenty-seven years of age, and left two children -- a son and daughter. Mr. Mitchell's second marriage occurred July 16, 1879, in Washington County, to Miss Mollie E. Hicks, a native of Maury County, Ga., and the daughter of Elijah and Elizabeth Hicks, natives, respectively, of Virginia and North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks were married in the last named State, and her father emigrated from there to Georgia in 1860. The former died in 1882, and the latter in 1857. In 1870 the Doctor came to Lonoke County, Ark., and four years later to Pulaski County, where he remained two years. He then spent a year near Hot Springs, and in 1878 moved to Washington County, thence the next year to Montgomery County, and two years later to Pike County. In 1882 he came to Sevier County, located at Chapel Hill, and there has a good home. He is also the owner of two small farms. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at eleven years of age and in 1860 he was licensed to preach, was ordained a deacon in 1868, and an elder in 1872. He has followed the ministry in connection with the practice of medicine ever since, although for a few years he abandoned professional practice altogether. In 1873 he joined Little Rock Conference, and remained in the same for fourteen years, being stationed at the above mentioned places. Since 1888 his work has bee local. In 1888 he was the choice of the straight Democratic ticket for Representative, but was defeated with the rest of that ticket. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1863, demitted from Radiance Lodge No. 132, North Carolina. He has been a member of the Sons of Temperance, and Mrs. Mitchell and the two eldest children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
ReplyDeleteP 230-31 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Ark (pub 1890)