MITCHELL, Harmon Wells

MITCHELL, WOODRUFF, ODONOGHEY, KELSO, JOHNSON, WELLS

Posted By: Chantel Schmitt (email)
Date: 5/6/2012 at 15:42:08

Harmon Wells Mitchell (1817-1883)

Harmon Mitchell was the descendent of Irish grandparents who had settled first in New Hampshire and later Vermont. Harmon's father, Wells, was born in New Hampshire in 1782 and his mother was Mary Raymond Woodruff. The younger Harmon was born February 20, 1817, in Fairfax, Franklin County, Vermont, the oldest of eight children. At 23 he married Mary Anne O'Donoghey, also of Irish parenthood, in Stockton, New York. After living in Illinois and Wisconsin he moved to Rockford to engage in farming (in 1865). He retired in 1877 to Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he died July 29, 1883.

Harmon had eight children: Harriet Lavina, Mary Levantia, William Wells (died in infancy), Harmon Lee, Clark Ell, Zachery Taylor, Jay Smith, Frank Henry and Annie Lucinda. Harmon Lee, born in 1828, married Emily Estella Kelso in 1874 and of his three children - James Guy, Frank Drumond and Harmon Leon - the youngest, Harmon was Nicknamed "Marke" after Samuel Marke, who managed the brewery which Harmon Wells and Dwight Johnson had built. Clark Ell, born in Stephenson County, Illinois, Married Blanche E. Johnson and two years later (1877) they moved with Harmon Wells to Stevens Point along with his third youngest, Jay. Z. T. Mitchel, born in 1851, married Emma A. Wells in 1872 and two children were born to them - Wells Delbert, who died as a young man in 1895 and Theoron Harmon (1879-1948). Z.T. operated a hardware store, sold buggies, horses, etc., and was involved in real estate, the First National Bank and the present Rockford Brick and Tile Company. In 1896 he began construction on what had been Rockford's most luxurious and comparativey most expensive of homes.

Z.T. died May 26, 1922. His wife, Emma survived him in good health until 1949. Possibly no other woman had been more active in so many town activities than Mrs. Mitchell, who was with the Cemetery Association since its begining, headed the Opera House project and lead numerous projects in Rockford's several women's orgnaizations.

Vala, Michael F. The Story of Rockford, 323-324. M.F. Vala Publishing, Dubuque, IA. 1970.

ORIGINAL CITATION:
History of Floyd County, 1882, 920; Family records supplied by Alfred T. Mitchell.