All My Ancestors

I’m still working on untangling Mitchells in Mississippi.

I believe I have found more information on a daughter of John Mitchell (and Martha “Patsy” McLain) that strengthens the connections.  As yet, I have very little actual documentation that these are the people I seek, but circumstantial evidence is mounting.

This started with wanting to know more about John Mitchell, b. about 1790, perhaps in Orange County, North Carolina.  This family seems to keep moving south and west as land opens up, and I believe he marries Martha “Patsy” McClain in Tennessee about 1810.  One of his brothers, James, dies about 1825 while working as a merchant in Alabama (I believe James may have been living in Charleston, SC).  Another brother, David Reed Mitchell evidently has guardianship of James’ children and attempts to recover some monies from a Creek Indian chief named Opothohola, according to two of his letters found in Andrew Jackson’s papers.  I believe this is the same David Reed Mitchell who is documented as one of the founders of Corsicana, Texas, though I have found nothing (online) in this documentation that mentions David R. Mitchell’s “previous life.”

One of the next, and last times, we hear from John Mitchell is his aforementioned letter penned from Austin, Texas in 1847 as he awaits deployment to Mexico.  (I just checked when I wrote about this letter and it was the first day of this year–guess this is an appropriate way to end the year–still chasing John Mitchell.)  He is addressing his son Ephraim M. Mitchell and tells him to take care of his mother. He also mentions having stopped by Corsicana to see his brother “D.R.”

This makes me wonder where “mother” is located.  She does not appear in Ephraim’s household in Texas, but I believe I found her in a daughter Mary E.’s home back in Mississippi.  Again, I wrote about this daughter being married to Robert Louis Boyd, son of Mississippi state senator John D. Boyd.  I’ve been in contact with some Boyd researchers, and evidently, there are as many brick walls in Boyd research in Mississippi as there are in the Mitchells.

This evening, however, I found some additional information on Mary E. Mitchell Boyd.  Much of the Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley, Yalobusha County, Mississippi is online at www.findagrave.com.  Mary and Robert are in Marshall County, Mississippi in the 1850 and 1860 censuses.  Robert dies in 1869 and is buried in the Byhalia Cemetery in Marshall County.  Then in 1870 and 1880, Mary is listed as living in Water Valley, Yalobusha County.  In Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley, I found Mary E. Boyd, “wife of R. L. Boyd” buried, along with 3 of her children and some of her grandchildren.  One child, Rachel Lula Boyd Cunningham, died in 1883.  When I started looking for her to find a husband’s name (there were no Cunninghams in Oak Hill), I found a possibility in the 1880 Camp County, Texas census. I remembered that an older brother James and sister Rowena were in Camp County in 1870–James was working as a photographer and Rowena was a teacher.  This 1880 census had H. D. Cunningham and his wife Lula with two sons, listed with only initials–M.B. age 1, born in Mississippi, and H. E., aged 4 mos., born in Texas.  I thought these were good candidates for Mary E. Mitchell Boyd’s daughter and grandsons.

Sure enough, some more sleuthing showed a 1937 Texas death certificate for Howard E. Cunningham, whose parents were listed as Howard D. Cunningham, born Tennessee, and Lula Boyd, born Mississippi.  Howard E. is buried in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.

So, like John and his son Ephraim, it appears that his daughter Mary E.’s children also came to Texas.  I had previously located Rowena and James and Lilly and now here’s Lula, as she was apparently called.

All this began because I wanted to know more about the Mitchells–Ephraim’s daughter, also named Mary E., died shortly after the Civil War, leaving two children.  One of those children was my great-grandfather George C. Cooper.

The circle keeps widening, but I keep learning more.  I have also ordered John Mitchell, Jr.’s Mexican War service record.  We’ll see what it brings.

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Military records scare me.

There.  I said it.

I am finally somewhat comfortable with Civil War service records–more comfortable with Confederate ones than Union, probably because of the number of Rebels I have in my own family than Feds.  I’ve worked more with Civil War records–many of them are now available on Footnote.com and I ordered many of them from NARA before that kind of access was available.

But then comes John Mitchell, born about 1790, probably in Orange County, North Carolina.  His family moves to Tennessee, and I believe to Mississippi, and in May 1847, at the age of 56, John Mitchell joins the army in Rusk County Texas to fight in the Mexican War.  One of my fellow Mitchell researchers shared a letter written by John from Austin, Texas, while he was awaiting deployment.  He mentions his horse Charley and assures his son Ephraim that both he and Charley are getting plenty of food.

I found John Mitchell, Sr. indexed in Charles D. Spurlin‘s Texas Veterans in the Mexican War:  Muster Rolls of Texas Military Units.  The first time I ordered his record from NARA, I got a reply that the record was not found.  (The good news is that I did not get charged for the search and it was all done electronically, so the pain was quickly over.)  I took the opportunity to pick Craig Scott‘s brain a little after his presentation on the Mexican War and its records at FGS in Little Rock.   This conversation convinced me that the record was probably indeed held at NARA, but it also planted the seed of wondering if it might be held in Austin.  So I wrote the Texas State Archives and received a wonderfully educational and thorough response.  The author of the letter notes all the inconsistencies in Spurlin’s abstracts of John Mitchell’s records–not because of Spurlin’s work, but, I suspect, because of the common name AND, perhaps, the enlistment of a Mitchell son also named John.  At any rate, the record was indeed at NARA, and a second attempt with a note that it was the second effect, I finally got the file.

It is slim.  Only 4 muster cards–for June to August,  September and October , and November and December for 1847.  The final card is for January and February 1848.    Spurlin notes that Mitchell died in Carmargo in Mexico.  The muster roll cards confirm that he was left sick in Camargo as of 4 Sep 1847.  None of the cards confirm his death using that actual term.

So what other records might exist for this man?  And what about those other John Mitchells who could also be relatives? or not relatives but from the same general area of Texas?

I’m considering hiring a researcher in DC to look into this.  I think I need someone who can look at all the records at one time and make some decisions.  On the other hand, if I had access to them, I could do it myself.  Dallas Public has good military holdings.  Maybe I’ll try them first–

The search goes on.  A pension record would be so helpful, but as far as I can determine, no one applied for a pension based on John Mitchell’s service.  I believe his wife was in Marshall County, Mississippi, living with daughter Mary E. Mitchell Boyd.  John admonishes son Ephraim to “take care of your mother” in the letter,” but so far, I cannot get beyond this point.

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Here are Randy’s instructions for this week, should we decide to accept.

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your “roulette number.”

September 4 of this month my dad would have turned 80.  Given the Osborne genes, he’d probably still be with us if it hadn’t been for an unfortunate meeting with a staph infection after a hospital stay.  So 80 divided by 4 is 20 and that’s my roulette number for this exercise.

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

Number 20 on my pedigree chart is my great, great grandfather, John B. Cooper.

[For those of you who read this blog and don't have the faintest what an ahnentafel is, don't worry.  All groups have their own lingo, and I suspect ahnentafel is one that is not all that familiar outside genealogy.  Here's the definition from the Encyclopedia of Genealogy, where you will learn that it translates to "ancestor table."    It is the listing of one's direct ancestors--no aunts, uncles, cousins--just parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.  These folks are numbered, with the males being assigned even numbers--their associated female, usually a wife, has odd number obtained by adding 1 to the male's number.  So on my chart, my dad's number is 2 and my mom's his 3 (2 + 1).  Typically, each male's father's number will be double his number--the numbers double for each generation, in other words.  My paternal grandfather's number is 4 and his wife's, my grandmother's is 5, etc., etc. ]

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the “roulette number.”

• John B. and 3 of his 4 brothers all died in the Civil War.  He survived Camp Douglas only to die at the end of the war, probably in the Battle of Atlanta.  They were the sons of Job Cooper and Elizabeth Landrum Cooper.
• John B. married Mary Mitchell, daughter of Ephraim Miles Mitchell and Rebecca Jones Mitchell sometime in 1857, probably in Shelby County, Texas.
• He mustered into the 18th Texas Cav, Co. A (Darnell’s)  in Johnson County, Texas on 15 Jan 1862.  The value of his equipment is listed as horse, $125, horse equipment, $20, gun $35, and pistol, $5.

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

Done!

5) If you do not have a person’s name for your “roulette number” then spin the wheel again – pick your mother, or yourself, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Didn’t have to spin again. 

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Randy’s at it again.  And I stayed up late enough this week.

He asks for tonight’s “fun,” who is #21 on my ahnentafel.  An ahnentafel, as most of you probably already know, is the list of your direct ancestors–no uncles or aunts or cousins, just parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc.  The number of persons in generation doubles.

Number 21 on my ahnentafel, as it is with all ahnentafels, is one of my second great-grandmothers–my father’s mother’s father’s mother  Morrison—>Rachel Cooper Osborne—>George Charley Cooper—>Mary Elizabeth Mitchell.

Mary Elizabeth Mitchell, daughter of Ephraim Miles Mitchell and Rebekah Jones, married John B. Cooper about 1857, probably in Shelby County, Texas.  Mary was born about 1840 and died about 1865.  Randy links to a picture of his #21–I don’t even have precise dates for mine, much less a photo.

Mary is an enigma in my family research.  My second great-grandfather, her husband, survived prison camp at Camp Douglass in Chicago (2 of his brother died there), was paroled, promoted to 2nd lieutenant in his 18th Texas Cavalry unit, and then was killed right at the end of the war, probably in the Battle of Atlanta.  That left Mary with two young children–George C. who had been born in 1859 and Rebecca Ann, born 1861.  The family story is that Mary took her two children and left Johnson County, Texas and went to LaGrange in Fayette County Texas “with a man named Burns.”  She died there shortly afterward and I found court records documenting the childrens’ grandparents being awarded guardianship of George C. and Annie, as she was known.

So many questions–why did she leave and go to a place away from both her inlaws and her own parents?  Who was the man or the family she left with?  How did she die?  Where is she buried?

I have very little documentation for Mary.  I found published school records in Shelby County which helped me identify her parents and siblings.  She is listed in her parents’ home on the 1850 Shelby County census and living with her husband John B. and baby George C. in Johnson County, Texas, on the 1860.  The courthouse in Shelby County burned and that probably explains not being able to locate a marriage record for her.  I have not gone to Fayette County to look for court records or any other trace of her–one day soon, I hope to make that trip.

So, Mary Elizabeth Mitchell Cooper, your short tragic life is noted and honored by this great, great granddaughter.  I hope one day to find primary evidence of your days on this earth–beyond the 6.67% of my DNA I owe to you.

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This week’s Genea-Bloggers prompt is to take a genealogical day trip and blog about it.

As it happens, I was lucky enough to take a small road trip last week with my brother.  I flew into Houston Hobby and he and I headed to East Texas for a day and a half.  As we drove, we reminisced about the last time we’d been to East Texas together.  It must have been over 50 years ago as he was a baby and I was about 7.  I reminded him that he threw up bacon in the back seat of the car–you know he loves having an older sister with such a good memory.  Our great aunt and uncle had a new Mercury (the back window rolled down) and they took our family of five with them to visit relatives in Palestine in Anderson County, Texas, and who knows where else.  I do remember stopping at at an artist’s home in Weatherford and meandering through their garden (with real live goldfish in their pond!) while Aunt Eva visited inside.  A little surfing reveals that this must have been the Chandor Gardens, recently restored and re-opened in Weatherford.  And I also remember the dogwood trees in bloom–my “scorched earth” Texas panhandle eyes had never beheld anything so glorious.

Traveling through East Texas in January isn’t as glorious, but it was still a meaningful journey.  Much of our family was in East Texas early.  This trip I was chasing Mitchells.  I’ve written about my 2nd great-grandfather John B. Cooper who perished in the Civil War, along with 3 of his brothers.  My 2nd great-grandmother, his wife, was Mary Mitchell.  I knew her father’s name was Ephraim M., and her mother was Rebecca Jones.  And I believe I have finally determined that Ephraim’s father was John Mitchell, who died in Mexico during the Mexican War.  I’ve recently gone back through some family letters another researcher shared with me and have been able to make some connections that I wanted to explore further.

I had a photocopy of a photograph of Rebecca’s tombstone from Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Shelby County, Texas.  It looked huge.  When I actually located it, it was a very small stone, only about 18″ high.  It was about 5:30 pm when we finally  made it to the cemetery, and the sun was setting.  The pictures are back lit by the setting sun, but I managed to get decent shots.

R.B.Mitchell 1819-1898

The cemetery is a mixture of really old graves and new ones.  It is behind a country church–we passed lots of those in East Texas–and it is evidently still in use.  There is contact information posted on the gate.

In a day when people freak out about the lack of privacy because of the Internet, I thought it was interesting that these folks have their names and phone numbers posted right up front.

The church looked well kept–I’d like to know how many folks attend on Sunday morning.

I’d also like to know if this is a church where my family attended.  Rebecca is buried here with one of her younger daughters and her family.  I don’t know if this means that Rebecca was living with them at the end of her life and so that’s where she was buried, or if they all lived in this neighborhood and that’s the reason she is buried at Pleasant Grove.  Another big hole left by the lack of the 1890 census records.  Finding a larger “Mitchell” plot was helpful in locating Rebecca’s marker.  She is buried near-by–that’s her marker on the right in the foreground.

Laura L. Mitchell and her husband David Holland Mitchell are buried in the Mitchell plot.  (Laura L. Mitchell married David Holland Mitchell, creating a little Mitchell confusion for me for a while.  I still don’t know if David H. was a distant cousin or not.)  Laura is the daughter of Ephraim and Rebecca.

The light was golden and I had to concentrate to remember that it was 2009 and I was in a country cemetery in East Texas.  This sense of being transported happens to me in cemeteries–I don’t know what it is.  But there’s never enough time to stay and figure out what’s going on.

Before I left, I took some pictures of some Confederate soldiers’ graves.  There is some biographical information about William R. Pate and David B. Webb at Findagrave.

James C. Chapman 34 Ala Inf

William R. Pate 5 TX Cav

J. C. Warren 23 AL Inf

David B. Webb 6 Miss Inf

Rest in Peace.

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From my recent trip to East Texas, the tombstone of

Rebecca B. Jones Mitchell (1819 TN – 1898 TX)

married to Ephraim M. Mitchell (1814 TN – after 1875, before 1880 TX)

(where is Ephraim buried?)

buried at Pleasant Grove Cemetery

outside of Center, Shelby County, Texas

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Wow.

I broke all my own research rules today.  I didn’t call ahead, I forgot that “the courthouse burned,” and I got there late.

By not calling ahead, I didn’t find out that the County Clerk’s office was not in the court house, but in a nearby building.  It didn’t take too long to find the Clerk’s office, but we had gotten there late.  (In my defense, I did check the GenWeb site and Handybook, but obviously didn’t see the info about the offsite Clerk’s office.)

Let’s back up a bit.  My non-genie, though interested, brother offered to go on a short road trip with me to East Texas.  He kept saying he needed a break, and so here we are.  I’ve just spent the last 4 weeks on the computer day and night getting a class I’m teaching online refined and uploaded, and it started Tuesday.  I was due a little break, but working on the class meant I didn’t get to do my usual “up front” prep.  I flew to Houston this morning and we “flew” north, via his Jeep Cherokee, as soon as I landed.  That meant we didn’t get to Center, county seat of Shelby County, until about 3:30.

When we got over to the actual County Clerk’s office, when I asked to look for a marriage record from 1857, I was met with “The courthouse burned in 1883 and all those records are gone so we won’t have anything like that.”  Yikes.  Had I done a better job of preparing, I would have remembered this fact.  I believe it’s the reason I’ve never found a marriage record for my 3rd great-grandparents, John B. Cooper and Mary E. Mitchell.  I did retain my cool enough to ask if any of the records had been recreated, and she indicated that some had been re-registered.  Short story, the place was packed to the gills with landmen doing oil and gas work, but I shouldered my way in and looked in the indexes.  I was able to find the re-registration of an 1860 deed when 4th great-grandfather Job Cooper sold 218 acres of his original 640 acre headright.  Of course, I ‘d like to know what happened to the rest of the land, but that’s for another “mission.” He sold the land June 1860, which does give me a date of removal from Shelby County to Johnson County, and the deed was re-filed 1889.  I had a bit of a tussel with one of the young women who worked in the office–there was no sign saying copying stopped at 4:00 and I evidently missed the deadline by a couple of minutes.  She was balancing her checkbook when she turned around and told me about the deadline.  I had not seen a posted notice, and, swallowing my pride, went up to her desk and asked her very nicely if she would copy one page since I was from out of state and would not be back tomorrow.  She agreed.  Not cheerfully, but she did it.

Then we went out to Pleasant Grove Cemetery, where Mary E. Mitchell’s mother is buried.  Of course we took the wrong road out of town and had to turn around, but MapQuest finally came through.  (Did I forget to mention that my iPhone said it was fully charged this morning but was in fact, on the last dregs of the battery?)  The photocopy of the photograph I have of her tombstone makes it look very large, when, in fact, it is very small.  My brother was sure we could make some money mapping those cemeteries–it’s been fun “educating” him to the ways of genealogists and court house personnel.  So I can post the photo on Tombstone Tuesday one of these days.

Right now, I’m beat, and have to rest up for my foray to the Rusk County courthouse tomorrow.  John Mitchell’s probate from 1848 is supposedly on file despite “central business district” fire in 1860.

With fingers crossed .  .  .

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I’ve been obsessessed with searching Mitchells these past few days–probably because I have a class I’m supposed to be getting ready to teach.  I call it “productive avoidance.”  I set out to try to find out more about my 3rd great grandparents, Ephraim Miles Mitchell and Rebecca Jones.  I found Ephraim’s father’s name was John and that he probably has a brother also named John.

I’ve been working in the “Eggleston-Ford Connections” database at RootsWeb’s WorldConnect.  There wasn’t much info on any John Mitchell that precisely matched the information I have on Ephraim’s father.  There are 3 John Mitchells in the database, one born in NC in 1760, one born in 1788 [place unknown], and one born about 1856 in Tennessee.  From Spurlin’s Mexican War index, I figured John’s birthdate at about 1791, so 1788 isn’t all that far off.  The database has the 1788 John Mitchell marrying Patsy McClain with no dates, no places and no offspring listed.

I spent a lot of time entering Mitchells into my database today and searching and reading about the people they married and the places they lived.  They appear to have moved from Orange County, North Carolina to Middle Tennessee–mostly Maury County, and then on to Mississippi–northern Mississippi when that area opened up–Yalobusha County and probably Marshall and maybe Grenada County.

Now, here’s the leap, and I’m still not sure I’m not looking at two different John Mitchells.  I decided I’d look for a Patsy Mitchell living in Mississippi.  I knew that John Mitchell’s wife was still alive in 1847 when he wrote a letter to his son Ephraim.  I’d searched for a likely person for Ephraim’s mother in Texas but didn’t find a good candidate.  I also knew that Patsy was a nickname for Martha so when I wasn’t successful with searching for Patsy, I looked for Martha.

The most likely candidate turned up in 1860 in the household of a man named R. L. Boyd age 59, b. MS), witha wife named Mary d (age 42, b. TN) in Marshall County, Mississippi.  There was a Martha MItchell, age 67, born in TN living in their household in both 1860 and 1850.  A definite possibility.

Then I went to find out more about R. L. Boyd.  Turns out he’s Robert Louis Boyd, son of William A. Boyd and brother to Mississippi senator John D. Boyd.  I could find nothing about Robert Louis, but I did find that his brother married in 1821 in Maury County, Tennessee.  Still no direct connection but this all looks interesting in that the same places are still in play.  I checked the land patent records for Marshall County, Mississippi and found one for a John Mitchell in August 1838 (as well as Robert L. Boyd).  Again, absolutely no idea if it’s “my” John Mitchell, but another piece to consider.  I also found several John Mitchells listed on the 1846 Marshall Co. MS tax list–at least 4, so who knows?  (I also found that at least one of John D. Boyd’s children ended up in Johnson County, Texas–where my line lived prior to the Civil War.)

Then I went back to RootsWeb to do a little more specific searching for a John Mitchell and Martha McClain.  I have found a likely candidate and have written him.

In fact, I’ve written several folks this weekend and can scarcely leave my computer, hoping for a return email.  Even if this isn’t “my” John Mitchell in Marshall County, Mississippi, I believe he’s bound to be related and that will help as well.  Here’s hoping–

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After wondering about the use of the term “nephew” in an 1875 letter to Ephraim M. Mitchell on behalf of Hiram Reed Mitchell, a nephew of Ephraim’s father John Mitchell, I have more questions than answers.  I cannot find a link between Hiram Reed Mitchell’s father David to John Mitchell, though I have not looked in primary or original resources.  Maybe the term is not used literally in the letter, or as we would think of its usage today.

There is another interesting twist in the letter, however.  The letter mentions that the transaction in question was the trade of 100 acres of John’s headright land in Texas for H. R.’s sorrel horse named Charley.  There was a title to the land given over to H. R., according to the letter, but the title had been lost in a fire.  The letter states that John MItchell went to Mississippi “many years before before the War.”  My assumption is that this reference is to the Civil War, but since the letter is authored in Texas, might it not also have referred to the Texas Revolution (1835-36) or perhaps the Mexican War (1846-1848)?  The trade did take place, however, before the Mexican War because another letter exists that mentions Charley the sorrel horse.

In a letter dated 14 July 1847, John Mitchell writes his son Ephraim in Shelby County from Travis County.  John is in Austin awaiting deployment to Mexico.  He refers to Captains Ferguson, Johnson and Rap and Lieutenant Wills.  These names match the leaders of the units where John Mitchell is indexed in Spurlin’s index.  And then he mentions Charley–”Charley is fat we get plenty for ourselves and horses . . “  So there’s another confirmation of the connections between John and Ephraim and Hiram R. Mitchell.

This letter also contains the only mention I’ve seen anywhere to his wife.  John tells Ephraim that if any of his pay gets sent to Ephraim’s, he should “send it to your mother”.  I had made the assumption that John was a widower given that he was in the Mexican War at a fairly advanced age–he is listed as both aged 45 and 56 in the Spurlin book.  I believe the 56 is more accurate–it matches more of the info I’ve found on John.  But evidently he was not a widower and the other clue that this letter provides is that he mentions a brother “D.R.”  (assuming his meaning of brother is the same as our meaning of brother)    So is this David, Hiram’s father?  and could the R stand for Reed in both Hiram and David’s names? And what does he mean by “I have not seen him he sent me word he was so engaged he could not leave his office”?  What type of office did D. R. have?  and where?*

The version of the 1847 letter I have is a typescript–I’d love to see the original as much of the letter is marked “illegible” or “missing words.”  I’d like to have a shot at translating what is illegible.

So back to the search–who is the John’s wife and who is his brother D. R.?  This family is a challenge because the name is common and I have no idea where to find original records.  But I’ll keep working and narrowing the focus–I’m grateful to have copies of these letters as places to begin.  I don’t have much experience researching in Mississippi records, but this is the third family I’ve discovered as having spent some time there on their way to Texas, so it will be another “learning opportunity.”  And I also see a trip to East Texas in my future.  Any advice?

*update:  I found a David Reed Mitchell, born about 1797 in North Carolina, in Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas.  There’s a historical marker for him–says he was married to Mary Ann Higgins and that they had 5 children.  This David Reed Mitchell was a surveyor and a land speculator, which might account for his having an office. Other resources say consistently that Hiram Reed Mitchell’s parents were David Reed MItchell and Mary Susannah Buchannan.  Was there more than one David Reed Mitchell born in this time period?  Was there only one and he had more than one wife?  (I’ve also seen his wife listed as Lucy Higgins)  AND, is this the same David R. Mitchell writing Andrew Jackson in 1829 from Alabama, talking about needing to get home to Tennessee?

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Thanks to some generous researchers, I have in my possession a copy of a letter written by an attorney on behalf of a person named H. R. Mitchell.  The letter is dated 4 September 1875 and is sent from the office of Weaver & Potter, attorneys at law in Gainesville, Cooke County, Texas.  It is addressed to my 3rd great-grandfather, Ephraim M. Mitchell (1814-after 1870), who, if he were indeed living at that time, was in Shelby County, Texas.  We don’t have a precise date of death for Ephraim–we have him on the 1870 census and then no more mention, and as far as we can tell, his grave is not marked.  The letter cites H. R. Mitchell as a nephew of John Mitchell ((1791-1847), father of Ephraim.

This is part of the documentation establishing that Ephraim’s father’s name was John–do you have any idea how many John Mitchells were in Texas and Mississippi and Tennessee during this time period?  (Those are the places we know this Mitchell family lived.)  So I am glad to have one piece of confirmation that Ephraim’s father’s name was John, but tracking the right John is a task.  And if H. R. is a nephew, then his father must be a brother to John, right?  (Assuming that H. R.’s mother did not marry a man named Mitchell, which one of Ephraim’s daughters did.)

So I took this as an opportunity to try to expand my knowledge of the Mitchell family.   First I tried to locate H. R. Mitchell on the census.  Since he and Ephraim would be cousins, and Ephraim was born about 1814, I decided to look for a person with this name who was born about 1820.  The letter was written from Texas so I started there.  No luck in 1860, 1870 or 1880.  Then I decided I’d better confirm that there actually were attorneys in Gainesville named Weaver and Potter.  W.T.G. Weaver and C.C. Potter were written in  very small print above the main logo on the paper.  I was able to find attorneys by these names in Gainesville in both 1870 and 1880.

Back to H. R. Mitchell.  Since he didn’t show up in Texas, I decided to look in Mississippi.  In 1860, there is an H. R. Mitchell, age 37, born in Tennessee, living in Yalobusha County, Mississippi, who appears to be a good candidate.  Also in the household, supposedly his wife and sons–Mary A., James R., Samuel E., Theodore G., and George.  Going back another 10 years to 1850, I found H. R. Mitchell, age 29, living “North of the Yallobusha River” in Yallobusha County, Mississippi.  He is in a household with a William Miles, age 49 and Ann Miles, age 48.  Also in the household are Ferdinand Mills, age 11 and James B. Mills, age 2.  These finds helped immensely as I had no idea where in Mississippi the Mitchells were and this gave me a place to begin.  At his point, I wasn’t positive this was the same H. R., but I had not found anyone else with these initials or even who’s name started with H. that was about the right age.

Next I went to the message boards for Yalobusha County, where I did find some information about these families.  H.R. evidently stands for Hiram Reed, and Mary A. Mills was his wife.  [Note to self:  Ephraim's middle name is provided as Miles, but could it in reality be Mills?]  Looking through the message boards as well as the online family trees at Ancestry, H. R. is probably Hiram Reed Mitchell, son of David Mitchell and Mary Susannah Buchanan.  David Mitchell was born in Shelby County, Tennessee in 1796.  All this information matches what I have found about Ephraim and his father John.

I am treating all this so far as a working hypothesis.  I was not able to find any information that links John to David.  Yet.  They are about the same age and they both have Tennessee and Mississippi connections.  But so far, nothing definitive that ties them together as brothers.

I know that “relationship language” was not used in the same way we used it today.  But what could “nephew” from 1875  mean?  So far, the siblings I have found for John Mitchell include George, Andrew, James, Jane, Nancy, Susan, Margaret and Mary (who married Ephraim McCracken–is this the source for Ephraim Mitchell’s name?)  Again, this information has not been proven or researched in original records by me–just a working hypothesis.

More later as I continue to try to track down Ephraim’s origins.  I’ve never seen any mention of a mother’s name.  His father John died in Mexico, during the Mexican War, though Spurlin’s index (Texas veterans in the Mexican War : muster rolls of Texas military units) does not indicate he died of wounds.  Also listed is a younger John Mitchell in the same unit–is this a son, a brother to Ephraim?  or perhaps another “nephew?”

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