ISAAC NEWTON MITCHELL
Page 160

Mr. Mitchell was born in Morgan county, Illinois, February 13, 1829. His parents removed to that county from Kentucky in 1828, at which time Central Illinois was almost in a state of nature. Here he resided until the age of seventeen, when the family removed to Field's prairie in this county, where he continued at work on the farm for four years more, or until twenty-one years of age. He then went to Bath, and in the employ of Mr. Beesley until 1850, and with Messrs. Beesley & Gatton until 1861. He served one year as constable, and two years were spent steamboating on the Illinois river. In 1867 he was elected treasurer of Mason county, and in 1869 was elected county clerk, in which position he served four years. He was elected Mayor of the city of Havana in 1875, and is the present incumbent during this centennial year. He is also school director, and with his associates on that important board, Messrs. J. Wheeler and J. R. Foster, have erected our splendid new school edifice in this city, and advanced our schools to their present high state of perfection, of which we shall speak under another heading. In 1856 he married Miss A. L. Campbell, daughter of P. W. Campbell, and consequently sister of Hon. G. H. Campbell, of Mason City, of whom we treat on another page. On the business abilities of Mr. Mitchell it is useless to comment. The people of Mason county and of the city of Havana have put on record a most weighty and tangible proof of the estimation in which his qualifications in this respect are held, by the positions they have given him. Nor was these offices given him, a stranger and unknown, but because he was known, and from his boyhood's days had been with us. Faithful and reliable in all the relations of life, of healthful, robust constitution, he bids fair for more extended usefulness in the county and in the city where he resides.

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