Copy of Frank J Mitchell & Pearl Irene Williams Marriage lic

This image is taken from sources under Frank James Mitchell at www.FamilySearch.org

Notice the letter of permission written by Frank's parents for him to marry. He was 19. Pearl Irene was 18 and didn't need parental permission. Why was this? Perhaps because Frank as the head of the family would have been expected to provide for his new family so if he could not, then his parents would be responsible. 

Cut out of upper right hand corner of marriage license application. 

Descendants of Etheldred Mitchell (b 1775)

Descendants of Etheldred Mitchell

Generation 1

1. ETHELDRED1 MITCHELL was born about 1775 in Greene Co., NC. He died about 1834 in Greene

Co., NC. He married NANCY before 1807. She was born about 1785 in Greene Co., NC. She died in
Greene Co., NC.

Notes for Etheldred Mitchell: 1800 Greene County NC census (from Jean Teachey) Dred Mitchell 1 free white
male 16-26 1 free white female 10-16 1 free white female 26-43 1 slave

We found Etheldred Mitchell in the 1830 census for Greene Co., NC, Row 121, page 248. It did not list the
names but only gave tic marks for the age groups as follows: 2M age 5-10 1M age 10-15 1M age 15-20 (might
be Benjamin W. as he was born in 1812) 1M age 20-30 (may be son Etheldred, born in 1807) 1M age 50-60 (we
believe this is Etheldred) 1F age 40-50 (thought to be his wife) 4 slaves: 1 free colored male 10-21 2 free colored
females 10-21

1830 Greene Co. NC census Version #2 (from Jean Teachey) 2 free white males 5-9 1 free white male 10-14
1 free white male 15-19 1 free white male 20-29 1 free white male 50-59 1 free white male 90-99 1 free white
female 40-49 No slaves

Etheldred Mitchell is mentioned in the Goodspeed History of Southern Arkansas on page 230, as part of the
discussion on Barney E. Mitchell. The article said he was born in Greene County, NC where he spent all his life,
and death occurred about 1834. His occupation was givne as a farmer and lawyer. His wife was also a native of
the same county and there died; she was of Irish descent.

Etheldred Mitchell is listed on the 1816 Greene Co. Tax List. Etheldred Mitchell is listed in the NC census Index
as being in Duplin Co. in 1810.

Duplin Co. NC "Court of Pleas & Quarter Session Minutes" 1805-1809 Part 7. Wed. July 20 1808 Daniel L.
Kenan, Sheriff, rendered a list of Insolvents Poll Taxables for 1807 as follows: Etheldred Mitchell.

Wed. 19 July 1808 Daniel Kenan, Esq. rendered his list of Insolvents for 1808 which is allowed: Etheldred
Mitchell

From Jean Teachey: While searching at the Dept. Of Archives, Raleigh, NC, I found a land grant for Etheldred
Mitchell. This is for 36 acres in the Tyson's Marsh community of Greene Co. (Arba) We do not know what
became of this land at this time.

NC General Assembly Records for 1800 in Greene Co., NC Election for NC Senate--Etheldred Mitchell is
listed as not making a choice.

Marriage License, L.B. Mitchell & Claud Hope

Below is a copy of the marriage license for Lannis Beron Mitchell and Jesse Claud Hope. Lannis is the son of James Stanley Mitchell, born in 1883.

This marriage license is dated 27 of August 1909. Notice that Lannis has signed his name as L.B. Mitchell. It seems that he was known mostly as LB rather than Lannis. Jesse Claude uses her middle name and note that it is spelled 'Claud' not the traditional spelling of Claude.

Connie

Mary Welch Mitchell, Letter from Santa

Mary Welch Mitchell was the second child born to Charles F. and Anna Welch Mitchell.   Mary was born on 30 April 1901 in Oklahoma.    She was a charming person with a wealth of knowledge on many subjects.  Conversation with Aunt Mary was never dull!

Mary was especially fond of her nieces and  nephews, and at one time or another  just about all of them visited her in her home in El Paso, TX, where she taught English at Austin High School for 40 years.  She took them to Juarez, Mexico, and kept them entertained while they visited with her.  Mary died on December 22, 1981, and we still miss her.

In 1956, she wrote a “letter from Santa Claus” to one of her youngest nieces, and happily that letter still survives for us to enjoy Mary’s creativity and her joy in life.  The names of living people have been changed in this letter, but otherwise it is just as Mary typed it.

Maggie

North Pole

December 13, 1956

Dear Susan,

My Elf in charge of correspondence has just laid your letter on my desk.  I have assigned four Elves to check my lists to find your name.

Later:  My Elf in charge of lists for taking care of toys has reported that you are at the top of that list.  He reports that the things I left for you last Christmas are in good order.

The Elf in charge of dolls has just come in.  He says that you are a little girl who takes care of her dolls.   He tells me that one of his walking dolls has asked to be taken to you.   She says that she would like to live with you.

The third Elf assigned to your case has now reported.  He finds your name high on the list of children who get up in a good humor every morning.  He tells me that you work very hard making other people happy.  He read me  a note that he made last year about how good you were on the trip to Oklahoma and how you helped entertain your little cousin Julia Ann when she was tired and sleepy.   He tells me that you sang to her all the way in the car. 

The Elf in charge of thumb sucking is now ready to report.  He has a record of how hard you worked last year and how you quit sucking your thumb before Christmas.  He says that everyone is allowed a few nights when having tonsils out or during any other illness like chicken pox.  He doesn’t count those nights.

I am glad to see in your letter that you are giving some of your toys to the Indian children.  The little children that you make happy get better acquainted with me and love me more.  That makes me happy, too.

I am glad to see that you have thought about your brothers, too, and have told me what they want.  Tell Jerry that I have sent forty elves out searching and they have all come back with the same news.  We are fresh out of cars in his size.  Ask him if he will settle for a nice pair of roller skates.

As for Bobby, the only thing I have in my pack for sailors is a nice linen handkerchief.

I know that your Aunt Mary is glad that she can spend Christmas with such a lovely little girl as you are and with your pleasant family.

I’ll be glad to drop in myself on Christmas Eve.  I like to come where people are kind and good and like to make one another happy as your family does.  Of course you will be asleep when I come, but I’ll look in your room and see you there with Mommy and Daddy in their room and Bobby in his room and Aunt Mary sleeping somewhere and Jerry on the couch.  Tell him he mustn’t peep while I’m putting the presents out.

I like the way you signed your name.  You work very hard at kindergarten to do such good work.

My time-keeping Elf has just rung the little bell that says I must read the next letter on my desk.

“A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Santa Claus

Paul Denny Mitchell, Missionary to Cuba

Paul Denny Mitchell was the fifth child of Charles F. and Anna Welch Mitchell.  He was born on the 29^th of August, 1912, in the parsonage at Mangum, OK.

Paul was well-educated.  He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX in 1934, and then in August, 1936, he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree also from Southern Methodist University.  In 1936 he began pastoring  churches in Duke, OK, and Victory, OK until 1937 when he left in the fall for missionary work in Cuba, where he served until 1945.

Here are portions of two articles in the area newspapers:

An ambition of many years standing was fulfilled last week for Paul Mitchell, son of Rev. and Mrs. C. F. Mitchell, here when he received an appointment as a missionary to Cuba.

The desire to become a missionary had been almost a lifetime ideal of young Rev. Mitchell.  He first volunteered for mission service when he was but 14 years old.  He is now, at the time of the realization of his ambition, only 24.

The major part of his college career was spent at Southern Methodist University, at Dallas.  His five years there brought him distinction in oratory and two bachelor degrees.    Among his biggest accomplishments while at SMU was a first place in an all-school oratorical contest and a second award in a national writing contest, sponsored by the American magazine.

Paul spent the years from 1937 to 1945 in Cuba.  During that time he was pastor of the American Congregational Methodist church and dean of the Methodist Theological Seminary at Havana.  He had many interesting experiences in Cuba which he told about in his book written while he was there, Cuba Calling. 

Difficulties with the language led the list of problems.  In this excerpt from his book, Paul tells of his initial language difficulties:

My experience learning the Spanish language was often ludicrous.  I spent nearly a year in Camaguey as language student and as pastor.  I was appointed as assistant pastor, but within three months the pastor was moved and I was left alone in charge.  I had to prepare and preach two sermons each week.  I would write out a sermon in Spanish, and have my language teacher, a young Cuban teacher at our Pinson College, correct it.  I would then take the manuscript into the pulpit and read it.   I am sure it was most edifying to the congregation!  On one occasion a lady said something to me at the close of the service which I did not understand.  I had someone interpret for me and heard that she had been trying to congratulate me on how well I knew Spanish!

So simple an operation as buying new razor blades was fraught with difficulty.  I looked at my Spanish-English dictionary to discover the Spanish equivalent of “razor blades”.  I found nothing except “blades of

grass”.  I then asked my teacher, who said I should look instead under the word “knife”  since a razor blade was really a  “knife to shave  with”.  I went downtown muttering to myself:  “cuchillo para afeitarse”,  “a knife to shave with”.   When I arrived at the hardware store (strangely enough one buys only drugs at the drugstore in Cuba) I asked the young lady clerk for a “cuchara para afeitarse”.  She smiled and produced the blades.  Then she said, in English, “You really asked for a spoon to shave with.”

(Pp14-15)

In 1945, Paul returned to the United States to be with his father, who was very ill.  He left behind in Cuba a number of young men who were his students during his time there that he called “my boys”, as well as new mission churches which had been started in the 8 years he was there.

After returning to Oklahoma, Paul helped with the care of his father and became the pastor of the Methodist church in Noble, OK.  He was also a language instructor at the high school in Purcell.  He also began working toward a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Oklahoma.

On Friday, August 12, 1949, he and his sister Mary took a small group of children from the Noble church on a Sunday school picnic at the Rollins pond northwest of Noble.   The group had finished eating and a few children were wading by the edge of the pond.  Suddenly, Frances Jeannette Harris, age 11, stepped off into a hole that was estimated to be 15 or 20 feet deep.  Paul was in a boat watching the children when Frances stepped off the ledge into the hole.  Mary Mitchell and others who were close quickly attempted to make a human chain, but Paul saw they could not reach her and jumped in.  He was an excellent swimmer, and he reached the child and was bringing her to the bank when he was evidently seized by a cramp and went under.  They disappeared under the water and did not surface. The Norman fire department immediately sent equipment, but it was two hours before the bodies were recovered as the hole was so deep.    Services for both victims were at the Noble Church on that Saturday, and then on the following Monday additional services were held for Paul at Weatherford, OK, and he was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in the family plot.

In November of 1949, Paul’s brother Charles received a letter from Cesar Benitez, the pastor of the Methodist Church in Herradura, Cuba.  Part of his letter, just as he wrote it, follows, and shows the high esteem in which Paul was held by his students in Cuba:

Dear Brother,

I don’t know how to write this letter.  My little inglish  is insufficient to express what is my feeling about the disappear of that saint man Paul D. Mitchell.  I wrote a article in “El Evangelista Cubano” about his brilliant life.  All the ex students of him in Cuba cry the death of a father that  went to see the Father in  Heaven. 

Please, I want that you express to all the family the most deep manifestation of love in the name of all the youth preacher (Mitchell’s boys) in Cuba.

Other purpose of this letter is to ask you a good picture of Mr. Mitchell (the best one).  The idea is that we the fellow students of him will dedicate a big picture of his radiant person in the new  Union

Seminary (Seminario Evangelico de Teclogia) in Matanzas.  That occasion will be during the celebration of the Annual Conference to be held in the first week of January in that city.  I am encharge to see the artist in Havana for the development and others works.  We want to have it finish for December.   You and all the family are cordialy invite to that  memorial act.

The inauguration of one rural chapel in my circuit will be in December or January.  Will be dedicate “Mitchell Memorial” in the memory of one that his life was in fellowship with the Master.

                                                                                                Yours in the love of Christ,

                                                                                                (signed) Cesar M. Benitez

With all the changes that have taken place in Cuba since Paul left, the family sometimes wonders if any of the buildings and memorials are left.  Even if there are none left standing, Paul’s work and spirit are still being felt through the lives of the people he touched and the truths that he passed on to “Mitchell’s Boys.”


Maggie

Charles Fletcher Deems Mitchell

Charles Fletcher Deems Mitchell was the son of Barney and Mary Ann Rouse Mitchell.  He was born in Greene County, NC, in 1869.  Not long after Charles was born, his father Barney and Barney’s brother James set out on their walk to CA which led to their settling in AR.  Charles was probably about two years old by the time his father returned to take the family to Arkansas.

Charles became a Methodist Circuit Rider, and during his lifetime he wrote several books, one a biography, the other a book of sermons, and also a book of meditations.  He mentioned his family life as a boy from time to time in these books, giving a little glimpse into how his parents felt about life, and the secure grounding he had in his faith.  When he talks about his life at home and his father and mother, it is nearly always his mother, Mary Ann, or Molly, that he remembers there, and rarely mentions his step-mother, Mary Elizabeth Hicks.  Barney remarried a couple of years after Mollie’s death, and had two more sons, but Charles’s memories seemed to have been fixed with Molly and Barney and their home together, rather than the new home.  Charles would have been about 8 when Mollie died, so he had good memories of her always in his mind.

One of the sweetest descriptions of his home life is in the book of sermons, Gather Up the Fragments, in the chapter called “The Church: Its Origin and Growth”, on pages 85 and 86.  In this sermon, Charles talked about the many places the church could be:

The Church was in my father’s house, a little log parsonage on the side of a hill.  It was whitewashed with lime, with the cracks chinked and daubed with clay; a rail fence inclosed it, while in the corner was a well where water was lifted with a sweep pole and bucket.  Old-fashioned flowers grew in the front yard, hollyhocks, marigolds, bachelor buttons, and moss.  A bucket of ground ivy hung from a rafter of the gallery, and honeysuckle vines screened the front porch.  A wide, open fireplace was in the front room, where wood and pine knots blazed to give heat and light for the long winter nights.

My mother, a beautiful woman, with her hair parted in the middle, a white pointed collar about her neck, and a breakfast shawl* around her shoulders, was busy clearing away the supper dishes.  Two children, a girl and a boy, were playing William-the-Trimble-Toe** before the fire.  Father took the family Bible from the shelf, and all was quiet as he began to read.  His voice is confident as he pronounces every word of the Shepherd Psalm.  The lowly prayer follows, in which he remembers his home and his family, calling each child by name, closing with a hearty Amen.  Mother draws out the trundle bed, spreads the covers, and puts away her little ones with a kiss for the night.  The kitchen door whines on its hinges, a basket of wool rolls and a spinning wheel are put in place; a roll is attached, and the wheel given a turn.  As the thread is drawn, the hum of the spindle makes music as she sings:

"I want to live a Christian life, 

I want to die a'shouting;   

I want to feel my Savoir near

            When body and soul are parting."          

Thus she sings and thus she spins, the Church in her house enables work and worship to walk side by side in sweet fellowship.

* Breakfast Shawl:  A small, square checked shawl, folded diagonally and worn around the neck by women.  (from “A Complete Dictionary of Dry Goods” by George S. Cole)

** This link is from Google Books, and shows an excerpt from the book North Carolina Folklore, Chapter:  Children’s Games and Rhymes, by Paul Brewster.

Maggie

Letter From JS Mitchell

This is from Jean Teachey: a descendant of Winifred Mitchell, who was the daughter of BW Mitchell, sister to Barney E. and James Stanley Mitchell.

While researching the Mitchell Family, I found a small book on the Penina Mitchell Harrison Family. This letter written by James Mitchell to his sister, Mary "Moll", was in the book. It is stated that it was found by Charlotte Barrow Gray when she and Viola Barrow Turnage were getting things together to settle the estate of their mother, Ida Harrison Barrow. It was deciphered by Margaret Midgett Barrow and Myrtle Grace Barrow Brown in 1985. Helen Turnage Beaman has the original letter. Punctuation and spelling are uncorrected.

Sister Mollie write a letter often.

Lenoke, Ark.

Aug. 23rd 1879

Dear Sister

I told you I was going to send you some medicine you said you wanted some money but that is not what you want. you just Think so. you want something to cure you. What I send you will be worth more than all the money I can send you and even though I have not been able to get all the Medicine I wanted you to have.

Take meal & Scald it Spread it on clouth Some larger than your two hands then when a little cool Sprinkle mustard or ground mustard seed over the face of it put a clouth over the mustard side & apply the mustard side to your liver or a little to the right of the stomache as warm as can be born two nights but never let blister a better way if mustard is plenty is to mix it with the poltice but never scauld the mustard as that will kill it

The 3rd night take enough of the pills to move the bowels twice the next day from 2 to 6 as the case my require as soon as you take the pills bather your feet in water as warm as you can bare it till you Sweat freely but dont weaken your Self this will mek the pills act better you had better put a warm iron to your feet when you go to bed So they will not cool off to quick.

If your blood is thin or weak burn copper as well make good siSe pills take 2 or 3 aweek. Soon after eating in the morning is the best time. Or you may take one evryday if you kneed it. it want hurt you.

Take DawgWood Bark of the root & Black Chery Bark off the root & Beat up finely a tea cupfull of each Tell Etheldred or Frank to get you a pint of whiskey I will pay him for it Eat such as you know will agree with you and let alone such as you know ? want agree with you.

The Diet Should gnerly be leight but dont starve yourSelf. Get some acorns white oak or Post oaks are the best but any kind will do parch them & drink for coffee Sweeten if you like.

I Send you Some powders You will wet with water & make in oills comon Sise these you will take with the foot bathe If you will dry & beat up 3 or 4 pods of redpeppers & mix with it you will have the strong pill follow these Directions 2 months & let me hear from you let evrything els alone but what you see hers.

This will do your more good than any thing you ever tried I will send the pouciess in a separate package

times are quiet no much sickness Some crops are good & some are not so good. I have a good cotton crop my corn is no so good I think I shall make 4 or 5 bales I want you to tell me about Frank and Etheldred crops Write about thing generly all about the neighborhod & com.

Tell me somethings about Etheldred's wife is she prettie is she smart is she large is she smawl & who is she anyWay. Who is Frank flying around has sister Adeline any baus now days besure and tell me all these questions

Two more weeks will add one more to my family my wife tells me to ask you if that picture looks like it taken two months before hand Tell Frank a prettie girl here wants to take his picture from me must I let her have it

write soon to J. S. Mitchell

The spacing was added by me to make the letter easier to read. Isn't it interesting to see the spelling and the words they used to communicate? James Stanley was a country doctor who traveled his community in Lonoke, AR "doctoring". We don't know where he received his education, but he must have learned some of it on the battle field during the war. His older brother Barney studied medical practices from books at home; perhaps James did too.

Connie