Charles F. Mitchell

Charles Franklin Mitchell (February 18, 1806 – September 27, 1865) was a U.S. Representative from New York in the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Congresses.

Biography

Charles F. Mitchell was born in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania on February 18, 1806.^[1][2][3] A Quaker,^[4][5] he attended the public schools in Pennsylvania and became a journeyman miller. He settled in Lockport, New York in 1828 or 1829, operated a successful grain milling business, and was appointed to the volunteer fire department in 1829.^[6][7] He was also active in other business ventures, including the Batavia and Lockport Railroad^[8] and the Niagara Suspension Bridge Bank.^[9]

On December 2, 1829 he married Elizabeth F. Ellis in Henrietta, New York.^[10][11][12] She was born in Princeton, New Jersey on October 23, 1809 and died in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 24, 1898.^[13][14]

Active as a Whig, he was an early protege and business partner of Thurlow Weed.^[15] In 1836 he was elected to the U.S. House as the Representative of New York's 33rd District. He was reelected in 1838 and served from March 4, 1837 to March 3, 1841.^[16][17][18]

During his second term he was accused of not devoting his full attention to the business of Congress, and of not spending time in his district.^[19] He was convicted of forgery later in 1841, and sentenced to prison. He was eventually pardoned because of ill health.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

He later lived in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.^[27] By the time of the American Civil War, Mitchell had established himself in Flemingsburg, Kentucky.^[28] By now a Republican, in 1860 and 1861 he sent letters to Abraham Lincoln and others in Lincoln's administration, in which he described the Kentucky political situation and the prospects for success at keeping the state in the Union.^[29]

Later in the war Mitchell was part of a delegation that lobbied Secretary of State William H. Seward for the release of individuals from the Flemingsburg area who were being held prisoner for suspected Confederate sympathies, with Mitchell taking part because he was personally acquainted with Seward from their time as Whig politicians in New York.^[30]

He died in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 27, 1865 and was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.^[31]

References

1. Spring Grove Cemetery, Burial record, Charles F. Mitchell, accessed September 18, 2013
2. Joseph C. Martindale, M.D., History of the Townships of Byberry and Moreland, in Philadelphia, Pa., 1867, page 206
3. Rochester Monthly Meeting, Monroe County, New York: Quaker Records, Results for Charles F. Mitchell. The text reads: Charles F Mitchell s Walter & Hannah Lockport Elizabeth F Ellis b 3-2-1776 , dt Barzillai & Mary Brighton m 12-2-1829 (H) Henrietta Cert fr Chesterfield 5-6-1828 for Elizabeth Cert fr Middletown, PA 8-7-1829 (H) for Charles F.
4. Donald A. Clark, The Notorious "Bull" Nelson: Murdered Civil War General, 2011, page 40
5. Mark E. Neely, The Civil War and the Limits of Destruction, 2009, page 188
6. Clarence O. Lewis, Niagara Gazette, Pioneer Leaders of Frontier are Recalled, September 20, 1964
7. Lockport Journal, Pioneer Firemen, June 4, 1904
8. New York Secretary of State, Laws of the State of New York, Volume 59, 1836, pages 634-635
9. Upper Canada Legislature, Journal of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada, 1838, page 219
10. Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, Indexes, 1818-1850, ELE-GEN, marriage record, Elizabeth F. Ellis and Charles F. Mitchell, Digitized 2006, page 21
11. Central New York Genealogical Society, Tree Talks, Volumes 16-17, 1976, page 107
12. Society of Friends, Rochester Monthly Meeting, Quaker Records, Rochester, Monroe County, New York, 1900, page 97
13. Maysville (Kentucky) Daily Register, Death Notice, Mrs. Charles F. Mitchell, February 25, 1898. Text: Mrs. Charles F. Mitchell, whose husband some years since was in the milling business at Flemingsburg, died this week at her home in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, aged 88
14. Friends' Intelligencer and Journal, Death Notice, Elizabeth F. Mitchell, page 187, March 12, 1898
15. Glyndon Garlock Van Deusen, Thurlow Weed, Wizard of the Lobby, 1969, page 139
16. Geneva Gazette, The Late Election, December 7, 1836
17. Republican Watchman (Monticello, New York), Congressional Canvass, December 27, 1838
18. Sanford & Company, History of Niagara County, N.Y., 1878, page 108
19. Blair and Rives, Extra Globe, The "Hon." Charles F. Mitchell, May 26, 1841, page 28
20. Thurlow Weed, Life of Thurlow Weed, 1883, page 159
21. Jeremiah Hughes, Editor and Publisher, Niles' National Register, Volume 61, November 27, 1841, page 208
22. Henry Clay, The Papers of Henry Clay: The Whig Leader, January 1, 1837-December 31, 1843, 1988, page 519
23. Houston Daily Mercury, The Lockport Union Has a Bit of History to Tell, December 24, 1873
24. William M. Gouge, The Journal of Banking, From July 1841 to July 1842, 1842, page 183
25. Prison Association of New York, Report of the Prison Association of New York, 1845, page 51
26. New York Spectator, General Sessions, July 15, July 15, 1842
27. 1850 United States Federal Census, entry for Charles F. Mitchell, accessed via Ancestry.com, September 17, 2013
28. Lewis Collins, Richard Henry Collins, Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 1, 1878, page 361
29. Abraham Lincoln, The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 4, 2008, pages 54-55
30. J. Marshall Crawford, Mosby and His Men: A Record of the Adventures of that Renowned Partisan, 1867, page 86
31. Charles Franklin Mitchell at Find A Grave

External links

• The Political Graveyard

• Charles F. Mitchell at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.