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Biography of Hon. Isaac J. Mitchell
Boonesboro


Source: The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men Iowa Volume. American Biographical Publishing Company. 1878. Boone County.

JUDGE MITCHELL is a native of Ohio, and was born in Cincinnati on the 31st of May, 1827. His father, Henry Mitchell, was a farmer. His mother belonged to the Corbin family, of Ohio. His paternal grandfather was one of the militia men called out to defend Baltimore during the revolutionary war. While Isaac was an infant his father moved to a farm in Clermont county, Ohio, and there the son worked until he was nineteen, when he went to a high school at Laurel, Ohio, a few months to prepare himself for a teacher. He taught in Brazil, Indiana, and adjoining districts for nearly three years. While preparing to teach he worked on a farm a while for two dollars a week, devoting the money thus earned to the purchase of text-books. He read law while teaching in Indiana, and completed his school education by attending Asbury College, Greencastle, Indiana, one term, when, his health giving way, he had to leave the institution. He removed to Boonesboro, Iowa, in June, 1855, and there resumed his study of law while engaged in the drug business. He finished reading law early in 1858; was admitted to the bar at Boonesboro in April; and opened an office there in that year. He has since been in constant practice, except whep in office, building up a large business and an enviable reputation.

He served as justice of the peace in 1857, while reading law in Boonesboro, and the next year was elected a member of the state board of education, serving two years. In 1868 he was sent to the upper house of the general assembly for four years. He was chairman of the committees on enrolling and agriculture, and acted on three or four other committees. He took a prominent part in the movement to settle the title to the Des Moines river lands, and was a very useful and influential member of the legislative body.

While in the general assembly he was elected by that body a trustee of the Iowa State Agricultural College, and most of the time was a member of the executive committee of the same institution. While he was thus serving the state, more than one hundred thousand dollars were expended on buildings and improvements on the farm. His responsibilities were great, and he never shirked them or failed to give satisfaction.

In 1874 he was elected judge of the eleventh judicial district, and now holds that office. He is a man of great purity of character; is well read in law; has good judgment, dignity, decision of character, and other qualities which make him an excellent judge. His reputation as a jurist is slowly yet steadily rising.

Judge Mitchell has been an Odd-Fellow for twenty years.

He aided in organizing the republican party in Iowa, and still belongs to that party. He is a member of no church, but sympathizes with the Methodists in their general doctrines. In July, 1860, he was married to Mrs. Amanda M. Denison, of Boonesboro. She had one child, and died on the __ of May, 1873. The child is living.

Judge Mitchell had a hard struggle in getting the rudiments of knowledge and in mastering a few of the more advanced branches, for he had to rely wholly on his own resources and strength, and in his younger years was far from being robust and vigorous. By rigid economy and great industry and perseverance he laid a good foundation of scientific and legal knowledge, and is still building on it. He has lost none of his studious habits, none of his ambition, and is a reading, growing man.