Mitchell.Family.Nicholas-Fleming.BIO

Mitchell Family Biography
Nicholas-Fleming County KyArchives Biographies

HIRAM MITCHELL FAMILY
     	Among the early settlers coming to Indiana were Hiram and Lucretia
Bailey Mitchell and their children and Hiram's parents, Alexander and Mary
Mitchell.
	With wagons pulled by oxen and horses, the family crossed the Ohio River
on a ferry loaded with their household goods, livestock and food supplies.
	Hiram Mitchell's parents, Alexander and Mary Mitchell came to America on a
ship with Irish immigrants from County Cork near Dublin, when they were
small children.  The immigrants settled in Pennsylvania for a number of
years.
	Alexander and Mary Mitchell married and migrated to Kentucky where they
raised a large family.  Eventually, their son Hiram took out a grant of
land in 1839 under President Andrew Jackson, and they migrated to Indiana,
settling in Hendricks County.
	At that time, much of Hendricks County was still a wilderness, abounding
with game.  A few Indians still were in the county when the Mitchells built
log cabins, cleared the land and began farming, living on what they raised,
wild game, homemade maple sugar, fruit, nuts and vegetables.  They had a
cow that provided milk and butter and had a bell on her neck so she could
be found in the forest.
	Lucretia Mitchell became famous throughout Hendricks County as a midwife,
helping Dr. White and other frontier doctors deliver babies.  She also wove
cloth and made men's suits and caps.  Hiram and Lucretia raised eight
children.  One was Hiram Mitchell II, who married Elizabeth Clark.  They
were known as Uncle Hiram and Aunt Betty.  They raised six sons and lived
for many years on a portion of the original grant of land in Center
Township.  Their granddaughter, Marie Mitchell Lowe, lives on a 20-acre
portion of the original family farm.
	Hiram and Lucretia Mitchell and their children attended church at Abner's
Creek after the time of the circuit rider preaching in private homes.  In
the Abner's Creek Cemetery are found tombstones marked:  Alexander
Mitchell, 1762-1856 (94 years old); Mary Mitchell, born 1773; died 1847 (74
years old), and Hiram Mitchell I born 1805; died 1889 (84 years old).



Contributed by: Elizabeth Smith  e-mail jesmith@kih.net