History of Newport County, Rhode Island: from the year 1638 to the year
1887, including the settlement of its towns, and their subsequent
progress: illustrated New York: L.E. Preston & Co., 1888, 1185
pages. Edited by Richard M. Bayles
Chapter: History of Newport pages 879-881
Hon. Barzilla B. Mitchell
Hon. Barzilla B. Mitchell--The ancestors of the Mitchell family of
Block Island, now honorable represented here by the gentleman whose
name heads this article, were among the early settlers of the island
and the public and private life of members of this old family have
formed, in every generation, no inconsiderable part of the social, the
political and the business history of the town.
Mr. Mitchell was born here in 1838. His father, who bore the same name,
was a well to do farmer, who, through that system of mixed husbandry
which still prevails here, and through his connection with the old
wrecking company, obtained a competency for those times, and lived and
died a respected citizen. The grandfather, Jonathan Mitchell, was one of those plain men whose ambitions and tastes let their peaceful lives run on in uneventful channels to their close.
The Mr. Mitchell of to-day was surrounded in his boyhood by those stern
circumstances which limited his privileges of an education to the
public school system of his native town. These however, he used to an
advantage, and on the foundation there laid he, like many another, by
observation and experience, developed a mental discipline which the
college and the university often fail to impart, and in the supreme
test of practical life either in public or private affairs, he has
acquitted himself fully.
In business he became a member of the old wrecking company and was one
of the foremost in the political movement by which Ray. S. Littlefield
and Darius B. Dodge became the first democratic members of the state
legislature, from this town, Mr. Mitchell having nominated them for the
position. In this movement the young men of the town were more in
personal sympathy with each other than with the older men, who, as
republicans, had controlled the town for years. Mr. Mitchell was but
one of the young men of that period, claiming no special credit for
results, but it is a significant fact that two years later he went to
the legislature himself, and was re-elected for six years in
succession. In the legislature he was a working member of various
committees, one was the committee on fisheries, of which he was
chairman.
When the laying of the present telegraph cable from Block Island to
Narragansett Pier was being agitated, the only man from Block Island
who went to Washington in the interest of the measure was Mr. Mitchell.
He presented to Secretary Endicott, of the war department, his argument
in behalf of the town for an appropriation for this purpose. General
Hazen, the chief signal officer, was next interested in behalf of the
cable, and the plea for the appropriation, as thus endorsed, went to
the United States senate committee on the Urgent Deficiency Bill, and
was made an amendment to that bill and passed with it. Mr. Mitchell is
still chairman of the meteorological committee for Block Island,
charged with the monthly inspection of the means and the methods at the
government signal station here.
Probably no on feature, except harbor protection, has given this island
so great an impetus as that which naturally flows from good electric
connection with the outside world. Brokers now direct, from the
corridors of the hotels here, the movements of their affairs in Wall
Street, almost as readily as from a Broad St. office.
Mr. Mitchell is affiliated with the great Masonic brotherhood through
membership in Atlantic Lodge, and is a member of the First Baptist
church of Block Island. He esteems the building of churches and the
maintenance of the Christian ministry a duty lying along the line of
good citizenship, and hence contributes liberally to their support. He
donated one half of the site for the new Episcopal chapel built in 1887.
Mr. Mitchell, although widely and favorably known in political and
social life, is likely to be longest remembered through his successful
business career as proprietor of the Spring House,
the popular summer resort, mentioned in another section of this
chapter. No doubt the crowning event in his career was outside of all
these relations in life which we have noticed; for upon the foundation
of a man's home it it be a happy one, rests the whole superstructure of
what the man may be. His wife was a daughter of Archibald Milliken and
a sister of Capt. Arnold R. Millikin, an old family of which proper
mention appears in its proper connection in this chapter.
D. A. Mitchell, born in 1845, the proprietor of the "Highland House," is a son of Amos D. Mitchell, a son of Jonathan Mitchell.
Mrs. Mitchell was Rozenia Ball. They have on son, John E. Mitchell. Mr.
Mitchell built his hotel in 1875, and the annex in 1886. This house,
which accommodates one hundred guests, is on the highest ground
occupied by a hotel in this part of the town. (D. A. Mitchell was also a Nephew of Gideon D Mitchell).
Aaron W. Mitchell is proprietor of Mitchell Cottage,
which was built in 1866, accommodating thirty guests. His wife is Jane
M., the daughter of Cornelius Rose. Mr. Mitchell's father Robert C.,
was a son of Amos and a grandson of Jonathan Mitchell. (Aaron Mitchell was also a Nephew of Gideon D Mitchell)
Record of the Births of Jonathan and
Mary Dickens Mitchell found in an old deed book of the New Shoreham
Town Records archived at the Rhode Island Genealogical Society:
Jonathan being the grandfather of the men listed above are as follows:
Children of JONATHAN MITCHELL and MARY DICKENS are:
i. AMOS D.8 MITCHELL, b. June 22, 1782, New Shoreham book 7 page 452; died 1835.
ii. ABRAHAM MITCHELL, b. August
07, 1784, New Shoreham, Washington county, RI Book 7 page 452; d. Bef.
October 04, 1838, New Shoreham, Rhode Island; m. (1) ELIZABETH POCOCK,
March 27, 1808; b. 1784; m. (2) ROSANNA LITTLEFIELD, December 31, 1820;
b. 1781, New Shoreham; d. January 30, 1858, New Shoreham Death book 1
page 11.
iii. NATHANIEL MITCHELL, b. May
22, 1787, New Shoreham, RI; m. BETSEY D. LITTLEFIELD, March 09, 1809,
New Shoreham, Newport county, Rhode Island.
iv. ABIGAIL MITCHELL, b.
December 16, 1790, New Shoreham, Book 7 page 452 Washington county,
Rhode Island; d. April 11, 1866, New Shoreham, Washington county, Rhode
Island; m. NATHANIEL POCOCK, November 01, 1859, New Shoreham, Rhode
Island; b. 1785, New Shoreham, Washington county, Rhode Island.
v. FREELOVE MITCHELL, b. April 16, 1793, New Shoreham, Newport, Rhode Island Book 7 page 452.
vi. MARY MITCHELL, b. June 23,
1795, New Shoreham, Newport, Rhode Island Book 7 page 452; d. September
28, 1873, Providence, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Death Index bk 73 page
1298 CT 28; m. (1) JOHN MOTT HONEYWELL, July 02, 1816, Block Island,
New Shoreham, Rhode Island; b. 1791, New Shoreham, Rhode Island; d.
Bef. 1820, New Shoreham, Rhode Island; m. (2) SAMUEL RATHBUN, 1822, New
Shoreham, Newport county, Rhode Island; b. June 1791, New Shoreham,
Rhode Island; d. December 05, 1840, New Shoreham, Rhode Island.
vii. BAAZILLA BECKWITH
MITCHELL, b. September 12, 1797, New Shoreham, Rhode Island Book 7 page
452; d. April 15, 1880, New Shoreham , Rhode Island; m. LAVINA CLARKE;
b. April 25, 1802, New Shoreham , Rhode Island Book 7 page 451; d.
August 11, 1866, New Shoreham , Rhode Island.
viii. NAOMI MITCHELL, b.
February 08, 1799, New Shoreham , Rhode Island; d. December 20, 1857,
New Shoreham, Rhode Island; m. DAVID SPRAGUE; b. 1796, New Shoreham ,
Rhode Island; d. February 04, 1884, New Shoreham , Rhode Island Book1
page 16.
ix. GIDEON D. MITCHELL,
b. March 02, 1802, Block Island, New Shoreham, RI; d. after 1882, Perry
county, OH Coal Township, New Straitsville, 4 miles from Murray City,
Athens county, Ohio; m. SARAH MOTT HONEYWELL, July 11, 1822, Newport,
Block Island, Rhode Island; b. 1799, Newport County, New Shoreham,
Block Island, Rhode Island; d. Bet. 1870 - 1876, Licking county, Ohio
(the courthouse records were destroyed by fire).
Note on Jonathan Mitchell:
1. JONATHAN7 MITCHELL (JOSEPH6,
JONATHAN5, JOSEPH4, THOMAS3, THOMAS2, EXPERIENCE1) was born January 14,
1761 in Newport County, New Shoreham, Block Island, Rhode Island, and
died after 1840 most likely in Waterloo township, Carbondale, Athens
county, Ohio where a man between the ages of 70-80 is listed as living
in the 1840 census with son Gideon D. Mitchell. He married MARY DICKENS
March 08, 1781 Newport county, Block Island, Rhode Island, (on Page 452
New Shoreham Land Evidence,) daughter of AMOS DICKENS and MARGARET
BURDICK. Mary was born October 14, 1764 in New Shoreham, Newport
County, Block Island, RI (Book 5 pg. 464), and died before 1840 on
Block Island, Rhode Island. In the History of Block Island by Reverend
Livermore, he states that Jonathan Mitchell had went west. Ohio was the
"West" of that time period.
Transcribed in 2004 to by Sandra Mitchell Quinn, descendant
of Jonathan Mitchell through his youngest son Gideon D. Mitchell.
http://www.ohgen.net/ohathens/GideonDMitchell.htm
