Swan ~ Hartzell Family History

His cemetery record in Ohio indicates that Richard was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania on 5 Mar 1801, his wife Rachel's that she was born 1801/02, and from the 1850 census we know that their first three children were also born in Pennsylvania. Examination of the 1830 census index for that state reveals only one Richard Mitchell of the right age, living in Lower Makefield, Bucks County (that his birthplace was mis-recorded in Ohio, over 70 years later and 500 miles away, as Berks County seems not too unlikely.) That 1830 Bucks County Richard had a wife his own age, 29, and a daughter and son under five, all of which agrees with the 1850 Ohio census listing Richard, Rachel and their two eldest children Martha and John born 1827/28 and 1828/29 in Pennsylvania.

There were, however, many other Richard Mitchells of that time and place who might be confused with ours, but who are apparently not him on the basis of various lines of evidence. One lineage which should be mentioned is that of Mary Mitchell of Bristol Township, widow, who wrote her will 14 Feb 1758 and which was proved 17 Apr of that year. In it, she ordered that sons Richard, John and Henry be put to trade until age 14, and her daughter Sarah was left in the care of Mary's sister Margaret. Relatives Thomas Janney, mason, and James Bodine were named as trustees [Bucks County Wills 2:333. (Note that our Richard, also a mason, named a son John and a daughter Sarah.)

Thomas Janney and James Bodine appeared in Orphans Court in 1762 [Book 1:310, file #324] to request that Gabriel Vanhorne be appointed guardian to the three youngest children. (Our Richard's granddaughter Mary Mitchell married a James Van Horn in 1826.) At that court action, it was recorded that the childrens' ages at the time of Mary's death (1758) were "Henry, Aged about 14 Years, Richard Nine, Sarah Seven, and John Mitchell about Five". Thus this Richard Mitchell was born about 1748/49, quite an acceptable age were he to turn out to be our Richard.

However, this Mary was probably Mary Bessonett of Bristol, as that Mary married Henry L. Mitchell in 1743, and the husband of her sister Sarah was James Bodine. Her father John Bessonett in his will of 1774 listed the "deceased children of deceased daughter Mary Mitchell", so this Richard born 1748/49 died before 1774, and could not have been our Richard, despite all of the resemblences and connections. Also, Thomas Janney was married to Martha Mitchell, daughter of Henry and Sarah (Gove) Mitchell, of the Quaker family. Martha had a brother Henry, of whom I know nothing else, but he must have been this Henry L. Mitchell for Mary (Bessonett) Mitchell to call him relative. Finally, Mary's "sister" Margaret, to whom her daughter Sarah was entrusted, was probably Margaret (Stackhouse) Mitchell, wife of John Mitchell, brother to Henry and Martha.

It's of interest to note that another Mary Mitchell, of Philadelphia, made her will 9 Aug 1742, probated 21 Sep 1742 in Bucks County, naming, among her other children, daughter Martha Janney. Also, Mary Bessonett's sister Elizabeth married a Nicholas Larzalere in 1741, and their daughter Hestor or Esther, born 1744, married a Richard Mitchell 1771 in the Newtown Presbyterian Church. And, finally for this family, Mary's brother Charles had a grandson Charles Bessonett III who married in 1843 a Deborah Mitchell. As with so many others, these lineages keep intermarrying over the generations, but with a common name like Mitchell it requires carful research to determine whether or not any particular surname identity was familial.

Another early record is that of a Richard Mitchell, Jr., who as a Trustee purchased Middletown land in 1752. That would make him of the generation of our Mitchell's father. Finally, a Richard Mitchell produced a certificate from Philadelphia to the Middletown Monthly Meeting 22 Feb 1762, which places him also in the generation of or before our Richard. These might have been the same Richard, who knows?

A record exists, mentioned above, of a Richard Mitchell who married a Hesther Larzeleer in the Newton Presbyterian Church, Bucks County, Pennsylvania 26 Jun 1771. She was named as Hesther Mitchell in the will of Nicholas Larzelere of Maxfield Township, Bucks County, on 2 Aug 1791 [Will Book 6:198, #2899]. I'm indebted to Jeanne Larzalere Bloom for the first two citations [Bloom, 1999]. A genealogy from Dale Stewart [1999], which gives her name as "Hester or Esther", says she was born in 1744, daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Bessonett) Larzalere.

This marriage first came to my attention in a genealogy submitted to Everton's Family File by a Kathleen Mitchell, of Wisconsin, who is no longer at the address accompanying the file, and which appears also on Ancestry.com. She had Richard and Hesther as the parents of Mahlon Mitchell, born "1769 PA", and listed also Mahlon's wife Letitia Margerum and seven of their thirteen known children, plus one other. This clearly is our Mahlon Mitchell, father of Richard who came to Ohio with his family in 1832. Mahlon was actually born a decade later, and we have no way of knowing how Kathleen Mitchell decided that Richard and Hesther Larzelere were his parents. But since Hesther was still living in 1791, she could not have been a first wife of our Richard. Jeanne Bloom has a note, but cannot find the source, that Hesther lived to age 84 years. I can only assume for now that the connection described above is simply incorrect, as it contradicts the much more nearly contemporaneous account of Esther (Mitchell) Sanford, daughter of Mahlon, who drew the Mitchell/Shittathite tree ca 1900.

Richard was censused in Lower Makefield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1790, but was not taxed there in 1778, when he would have been about 28 years of age (nor was any other Mitchell taxed in that township then or in earlier years back to 1742). But also in 1790, on 15 February, Richard and Esther sold to William Vansant "a lot or piece of one acre of land and premises" for £16. The deed was not recorded until 19 Oct 1799 [Bucks County Deeds 30:290], about a year before Richard's death. Below is an ouline map of southern Bucks County showing Lower Makefield's location between Philadelphia, on the left, and Trenton, New Jersey, across the Delaware on the right. It is probable that the land they sold in 1790 was on what is now Main Street of Yardley, Pennsylvania. Where they lived after that is not yet known.

At his death, Richard was a mason of Lower Makefield whose will, signed 27 Jul and proved 22 Dec 1800, bequeathed one dollar to each of his children, John, Elizabeth Carlile, Mahlon, Mary, Sarah, Esther and Daniel [Bucks County Wills 6:310, #2973]. He gave all of his residual real and personal property to his "dear wife Esther", and he named her and his friend William Aspey of Lower Makefield as executors. Witnesses were Joseph and David Vanhorn and Alexander Derbyshire. The surname was spelled "Mitchel" throughout the document, but he signed it "Richard Mitchell". A grandson-in-law of Richard's was a James Van Horn, and the guardian named for the widow Mary Mitchell's children was a Gabriel Vanhorne. There were three Vanhorns censused close to Richard in 1790, and Van Horns continued to be closely associated with the Mitchell line, even to being close neighbors in Miami County, Ohio, fifty years later.

A document filed 13 May 1806 lists some 30 debts owed to the estate totaling £116 7s 4p which, when added to the above amount, gave a total value of Richard's estate of over £188. In addition to some £8 from Alexander Derbyshire, one of the witnesses to his will, there was an amount of 9 pence owed by Giles Satterthwaite, and five debts totaling over £50 from Abraham, Nicholas and John Larzelere. Giles was a first cousin once removed of Richard's wife Esther, and note the discussion in the introduction above concerning the erroneous claims that a Richard Mitchell and Hester Larzelere were parents of the Mahlon who married Letitia Margerum.

The accounts of their Administration were filed 15 Jul, and the estate proceedings were confirmed by the court 2 Sep 1806, when the accounts of the executors listed an inventory of £180 3s 11p, disbursements of £150 16 1 1/2 and remainder of £33 7 9 1/2 "to be disposed of as the will directs" [Bucks County Orphans Court, Book 3, p 257, 1806], i.e., bequeathed to his widow Esther. Were the disbursements debts owed by Richard to more than offset money owed to him?

Esther, daughter of John and Martha Satterthwaite of Tockhow, Hawkshead Parish, Lancashire, England just HAS to be the wife of Richard Mitchell of Lower Makefield, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

However, we have no direct documentary proof that this is so:

For starters, all of the Satterthwaites of this world descended from the Hawkshead area, so we know Richard's wife is related to the other Satterthwaites in this country.

The circumstantial evidence is that I had estimated Richard and Esther were born ca 1750, as they started their family after 1774, and that is just the date given for the birth in England of Esther Satterthwaite (and for her twin Elizabeth). Also, that Esther's uncle William Satterthwaite was an immigrant 1734 to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Richard and Esther lived. And William's grandson Giles lived near the Mitchells in Lower Makefield Township, Bucks County (and owed nine pence to Richard's estate after his death).

The negative circumstantial evidence is that we have been unable to find (despite extensive search) an American born Esther Satterthwaite in either Bucks County or in Burlington County, New Jersey, just across the Delaware.

If these two Esthers are indeed one and the same, then two possibilities exist: She immigrated to America as a single woman, say in the 1770s, or she married Richard in England and they came together then or a few years later. They may even have had one or more children in England, as we have no birth places documented for any of their children (save Daniel, the youngest, born after the 1790 census).

Birth records in Lancashire in the second half of the 1770s for John and/or Elizabeth Mitchell, children of Richard and Esther, would be factual evidence for this identification.

The children in Richard and Esther's family are given in the order listed in the abstract to Richard's will, mentioned above. Specifically, it reads "John, Elizabeth Carlile, Mahlon, Mary Mitchell, Sarah Mitchel, Esther Mitchel & Daniel Mitchel". From the 1790 census for Richard in Lower Makefield, the first six children were born 1774 to 1790, and so Daniel after that latter date. Burdett [1999c] gives estimates for the birth years of the children, but in a different order which agrees with neither the will nor the census, so those have not been adopted here.

The seven children of Richard and Esther (Satterthwaite) Mitchell were John, Elizabeth "Betsy", Mahlon, Mary "Polly", Sarah, Esther and Daniel. text

There is an Administrative proceeding, #5147, recorded 1823 for Esther Mitchell of Falls, Bucks Co, not yet examined. Whether or not that is Maylon's mother is as yet unknown, but note that she did not appear in his household in 1810.

From the birth places given for their children, Mahlon and Letitia moved from Bucks County a hundred miles west to Shamokin, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania sometime before 1817. Indeed, there is an 1820 census record in Augusta Township of that county for a "Melon Mitchel", but the ages don't correspond at all to those of Mahlon and his family.

Richard, at most 15 years of age at that time of the move before 1817, presumably would not have stayed behind. However, he was not censused with the family in 1820, when he was 18, so must have gone back to Lower Makefield where he was married in 1827 and censused in 1830. Martha, even younger, must also have returned, as she was married in Hunterdon Co., NJ, in 1826.

Finally, the birth of Mahlon and Letitia's daughter Letitia in Sparta, Livingston County, New York, would seem to indicate that the family moved there some time between 1820 and 1826. There is no recognizable census index entry there in 1830 for Mahlon or any of his sons. He does appear in the census indexes for Sparta in 1840 and 1850, however, and in Naples, Ontario County, New York, in 1855 and 1860.

The online Naples 1855 census index lists (alphabetically) Abigail, Charles, Lutitia, Lutitia, Mahlon, Mahlon, Rebecca and Roxanna. Charles, Rebecca and Letitia were names of Mahlon's younger children, the others may be his grandchildren.

In 1860 we find Abigal, Benjamin, Benjamin Jr, Charles, Delilah, Elizabeth, Letitia, Mahlon and Zachariah, but in 1865 only Mahlon, Jr. appeared.

On 8 Jan 1999 I received from Andrew Burdett a photo, taken about 1989, of Mahlon Mitchell's cemetery marker at the Garlinghouse Cemetery in Naples. Its date of Nov. 14 1862 and age at death of 83 3 5 leads to a birth date of 9 Aug 1779, a month and ten days earlier than the aforementioned Family Record.

The children of this family, with their birth dates, are from Bill Burdine [1999c]. Burdine doesn't specify the birth places of the first eight children, but it can be assumed that most were born in Lower Makefield, Bucks.

The thirteen children of Mahlon and Letitia (Margerum) Mitchell were Richard, Martha, Benjamin, Mahlon, Elizabeth B., Esther, John, Rebecca, Daniel, Margerum, Charles, Amos and Letitia. (After bearing thirteen children, Letitia still lived to the age of 86 years!)

There is a mysterious 1820 census record in Lower Makefield for a Richard Mitchell born 1794/1804. It records a male under ten years and one 10 to 16, and six women in the household, two of whom were over 26 years and two more over 45. Who this family is we have no idea, but its existence warns us to be careful when interpreting records in that township and time period. It could be an error filled record of our Richard with various related or unrelated individuals, but that can only be speculation.

Richard was censused 1830 Lower Makefield. He and his wife were recorded as born 1800 to 1810, and their son and daughter 1825 to 1830, all of which agrees with the later record in Ohio. Also in his household was a female over 60 years of age, undoubtedly Rachel's mother Hannah (Yardley) White, about 64 years old at that time, who moved to Ohio with them in 1832. Richard was censused there in 1835 according to the Miami Valley Genealogical Index], [MVGI], although I have not seen that census record.

Andrew Burdett describes that part of the Mitchell tree chart concerned with Richard and his family [Burdett, 1998] as follows:

"Richard Mitchell, married Bucks, -- Ohio -- large family. Also branching from him are named two children: Mary and Creson M. In the family record information, it names a Hannah, daughter of Richard Mitchell, who died July 18th 1873. Also states that Richard Mitchell died July 17th 1875 aged 73 years 4 months 11 days. Nothing in the record gives Richard's wife's name." On the basis of this I've corrected his birth date by one day relative to the record cited below.

Since the three eldest children were born in Pennsylvania through January of 1832, and Sarah, the next, was born 1832/33 in Ohio according to the 1850 census, the family must have moved west in 1832. However, the first land purchase recorded for Richard, in Lostcreek Township, Miami County, from his mother-in-law Hannah White, was in 1835 [Miami Valley Genealogical Index]. However, Rachel's mother purchased two lots totaling 221 acres in that township on 27 Dec 1832. This indicates the she and most probably the Mitchells had arrived in Ohio before that date, and it might well be surmised that Richard's family lived with her until he purchased the 124 1/4 acres from her on 23 Mar 1835 [Deeds, 13:224].

1832 was a year of an extensive cholera epidemic, and Lost Creek Township suffered the loss of many individuals and entire families. A tale of this devastation can be read online in the 1880 History of Miami County, which also has extensive additional information about the township and of the village of Casstown.

On the 1853 Miami County Map, Richard's land is shown as 80 acres, the north half of the north-east quarter of Section 20, and he appeared in the state census that year.

Miami County, near the west central border of Ohio, was the focus of both our Mitchell/Markley lineages on our father's side, as well as our Hartzel/Miller line on mother's. Lostcreek Township, first settled in 1802, is on the east side of the county, and the only town is Casstown, where the Markleys settled, in its southwest corner.

On 22 Sep and 26 Sep 1836 Richard sold the land in Section 8 [Deeds, 14:464] and Section 9 [Deeds, 14:466] to Thomas Mitchell. Twelve years later Thomas deeded part of the Section 9 property to the Trustees of the Christian Meeting House for the sum of $20 [Lostcreek Township History]. That congregation, originally The Christian Church or the New Light Church, became The Lostcreek Christian Church in 1886.

The Thomas Mitchell above is unidentified as to any relationship to Richard. The two men were of the same age, and the children of Thomas and his wife Sarah were John, Isaac, Margaret, Frederick and David according to the 1850 census, where they appear some 24 households after Richard. On the 1853 map of Miami County, Thomas Mitchell is shown holding 137 acres in Section 9, with a small appendage in Section 8, in Lost Creek Township, two miles east of Richard's Secion 20 land. The Christian Church is shown on the west edge of his property.

Less than two weeks after selling his land to Thomas Mitchell, Richard purchased 80 acres on 8 Nov 1836 from Ezra Brelsord in Section 20, right in the middle of Lostcreek Township [Deeds, 14;571]. Richard's name appears on the township map published after 1850 occupying the north half of the north-east quarter of the section, with the Troy-Urbana road cutting diagonally across the north border of his land. On 26 Jan 1862 Richard and William Hearst, his neighbor to the north, exchanged deeds, [37:140 and 39:63], in order to align the boundary between their land along the road instead of along the section line. Modern land maps clearly show this change in the property boundary.

In 1840, the census for Richard shows seven children, and agrees in ages with the children born by then as indicated in the 1850 census. The 1850 census, taken 8 August, is the primary source of our knowledge of the children of Richard and Rachel, including their ages. It shows Mary (Alice) and her two older siblings born in Pennsylvania, and the rest of the children born in Ohio. It also indicates that Richard and two of his sons, John and Edward, were engaged in farming, and that his real estate was worth $2500.

Richard and Rachel bought land in Lost Creek Township in 1862, and sold it that same year [Deeds 37:140 and 39:63], but I have not seen the records of those transactions.

As mentioned in the introduction, Richard and Rachel are buried in the Lost Creek Baptist Church cemetery, some two miles north of Troy on the west side of SR589. The record [Brian, 1955] of that cemetery indicates that Richard was born in Berks [sic] County, Pennsylvania on 5 Mar 1801, and died 17 Jul 1875. I have no way to tell if that birth date was carved explicitly on the stone, or whether it was calculated from an age at death. This same date of death, however, is also recorded on the Mahlon Mitchell Family Record which says that he died aged 73 years 4 months and 11 days, in perfect agreement with his birth date on that document. Richard's estate was probated in 1875 [Case 05778].

Rachel's cemetery record gives her death on 20 Nov 1891 at age 89y 8m 27d. If the birth recorded in her Bible is correct, that should have read 14 days.

Rachel's place of birth was in Pennsylvania according to the 1850 Miami County Census, but New Jersey in the 1860 census, and in the 1880 census of her daughter Sarah (Mitchell) Long Ike, as well as on her death certificate. Her father bought land in 1801 and was taxed in 1802 in Hopewell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

The Rev. Cooley, who married Richard and Rachel, wrote a book on the genealogy of some of his parishoners in the Ewing Presbyterian congregation [Cooley, 1883]. One of the families was that of James White, born 1787/88, about a half generation before Rachel. James, son of Abraham and Mahitable White, had seven children by two wives, Catherine Olden and Mary Smith, but none of them were Rachel, so she must have belonged to another White family in the congregation. (James only brother died sans progeny. There was no White on the Ewing role of 1733 [Walker, 1929]. None of these people are mentioned by Waite [1999].

The New Jersey Register listed a John Moore White as living in Trenton in 1837, a few years after Rachel's marriage. He had been admitted to the Bar in 1791, practiced in Gloucester County, and was an Assemblyman, Attorney General 1833 to 1838, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court until 1845 [Walker, 1929]. John also was not mentioned by Waite.

For some reason Rachel does not appear in the presumably complete index for the 1880 census at www.FamilySearch.org.

From the Casstown column of "The Buckeye" of Troy, Ohio on Thursday, 26 Novermber 1891:

"Mrs. Mitchell, wife of Richard Mitchell, one of the old residents of this township, passed away from labor to rest, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Paul Ike [Sarah] on Friday morning, the interrment taking place in Lostcreek Baptist Cemetery". Her estate was probated that year [Case 09151].

C. B. is Creson (Burdett tree) or Cressin (1880 census). The year of birth is in agreement with the 1848/49 inferred from the 1850 census, and Miami County confirms the identification. Mrs. Emma C. Mitchell who arrived the same day is his wife, as confirmed by the 1880 census for Grant Township (Lawrence), Douglas County, Kansas.

The supposition might be that Emma was the wife of C. B. , so I now accept that spelling of his name [see below]. The 1880 census for Lawrence might shed some light on these two. (It can only be a coincidence that Richard's brother Mahlon named a daughter, born about 1848, as Emma C. , unless that Emma's first husband died and she then married her first cousin. This seems unlikely, as Burdett [1999c], writing in Upper State New York, had that Emma's death date (but not place nor second marriage), and it seems improbable that he would have known the date had she remarried and gone to Kansas.)

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Mary Alice, daughter, born 11 Jan 1832.

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Sarah L., daughter, dtr., born 1832/1833 in Lostcreek Twp. and was buried in Lostcreek. Sarah L. was married 18 Nov 1851 in Miami to James L. Long (1) {born 3 Aug 1830, died 31 Mar 1867 in Miami and was buried in Casstown Cem.}. She married (2) Paul F. Ike {born 1808 in Pennsylvania}. James L. Long and Sarah L. Mitchell are recorded [MVGI] as having married in 1851. This seems quite early since their earliest known child was born about 1858, according to Daley [1999]. The marriage record might be defective, or there might have been other children not recorded who died as infants, as did their last three children. Wattman reports that Sarah's tombstone reads 25 Sep, but the year and age at death are too eroded to decipher. Mike Daley, however, records the year (only) as 1914. The census of Sarah with her second husband Paul Ike in 1880 gave her middle initial as "A.", but also gave her son as "Oswell B." rather than "Oswald G.", so I discount the accuracy of that record. It gave her mother's birthplace as New Jersey. Notice that Sarah was twenty five years younger than her second husband. James L. Long purchased land in Section 3 of Lostcreek Township on 27 Mar 1859 from George McCullough, and on 15 Dec of that year from Mary J. McCullough. Section 3 is where Sarah's brother John Mitchell bought land, and adjacent to Section 9 where Sarah and John's maternal grandmother Hannah (Yardley) White settled when she came to Ohio. James was mentioned as James L. in the will of James Long in 1860 [MVGI]. That will might have been written by the James Long whose estate was probated that year [Case 03389] or that of the James Long probated in 1861 [Case 03546]. (I don't have the township of residence for these will and Probate Court records.) Any of these two or three men could have been the James who bought land in Lostcreek Township in 1831. A James Long (or two such) had purchased land in Lostcreek Township Sections 1 and 2 from 1828 to 1834, and one was censused there in 1835 [MVGI]. The latter record, if examined, might indicate whether that James could have been the father of James L., as he was about five years of age at the time. The birth year for James L. comes from his gravestone [MVGI], but that index did not record the date of his death. His own will was written in 1860 [Wills 2:479], but he survived to have two more children before his death in 1867. His estate was probated that year [Case 04409]. Paul Ike was Sarah's second husband according to Mike Daley. One or more Paul Ikes entered into several land transactions recorded in Miami County. He bought and sold land in Rossvile, Springcreek Township and Piqua over the period from 1840 through 1855. Paul Ike was censused 1850 in Piqua, and a Paul F. Ike was censused 1880 in Lostcreeek Township. This census is clearly for the right family, as it contains Sarah's children by her first husband: 1880 Census, Lost Creek, Miami, Ohio Family History Library Film 1255049 NA Film Number T9-1049 Paul F. IKE Self M Male W 72 PA Farm Laborer PA PA Sarah A. IKE Wife M Female W 47 OH Keeping House PA NJ Oswell B. LONG SSon S Male W 23 OH Farm Laborer OH OH Thomas E. LONG SSon S Male W 21 OH Farm Laborer OH OH Jas. E. LONG SSon S Male W 17 OH Farm Laborer OH OH Rosa M. RUSH Other S Female W 7 OH OH OH Another Mrs. Paul Ike died in 1873 [MVGI], but could not have been this Sarah censused in 1880 and, according to Mike Daley, Sarah lived until 1914. The five children of James L. and Sarah L. (Mitchell) Long:

1	Oswald G., son, born 1857/1858. The guardianship action in 1868 named this son Oswald G., but he is probably the man censused in Lostcreek Township in 1880 as Oswell B. in the household of Paul F. Ike, his father-in-law.
2	Thomas, son, born 1859/1860.
3	Estaville, daughter, died in infancy 14 Jan 1860.
4	Sylvia S., daughter, born in 1861 and died 11 Oct 1862.
5	James, son, born 1862/1863.

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Edward, son, born 1834/1835 in Lostcreek Twp. Edward was married 26 Sep 1858 to Victoria Fields {born 1837/1838 in Ohio}. I originally had in my records, the source of which I've lost, that Edward's wife was Victoria Fields, born about 1840. In the 1860 Lost Creek census they had a son George who was eight months old, and a "laborer" Marian Fields, 18, in their household. In 1880, a Victoria A. Mitchell, aged 42, was censused in Tipton, Cass County, Indiana [pg. 419A] with a son George B., 20, a daughter-in-law Laura B., 19, and another son Elmer E., 16. Victoria was born in Ohio, and the father of her two sons was also. These ages and birthplaces make in quite probable in my mind that these were the widow and sons of Edward, and I'm accepting at least tentatively these names and dates. Note that Edward's sister Mary Alice and Aaron Markley moved to Kansas in 1879 from Wabash County, some 30 miles east of Cass County, Indiana. There is also a marriage recorded in Miami County for an Edward Mitchell to Amanda J. Worman in 1867. Whether or not that is this Edward is unknown. If so, Victoria was a divorcée, not a widow, and this is pretty unlikely at that time in the midwest. The two children of Edward and Victoria (Fields) Mitchell:

1	George B., son, born 1859 in Ohio.
2	Elmer E., son, born 1863/1864 in Indiana.

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George W., son, born 1836/1837 in Lostcreek Twp. George W. married Delcina P. Frazee {born 6 Sep 1841, died 4 Oct 1875 in Lostcreek Twp. and was buried in Lostcreek}. G. W. Mitchell is "assumed" by Mike Daley [1999] to be the sibling of John, Sarah and Hannah Mitchell, in which case he must be George. He married, according to Daley, R. Delcina Frazee, sister to the Jerusha Frazee who married John Mitchell. See that history for details on the Frazee family. Since the two sisters married Mitchells, it seems likely that G. W. is probably the brother of John, but the lack of a marriage record is troubling. Also, there are a confusing number of other records through which to sort. There was a G. W. Mitchell censused in Dayton, Ohio in 1880. There were two George W. Mitchell marriages, one in Miami County in 1866 to Rebecca D. Garver, and one in Shelby County, just north of Miami, in 1878 to Laura Scoby. Not to mention the six George Mitchells censused in 1880 in the Miami Valley as a whole (but not in Miami County). Despite the number of census and marriage records, land records appear in the whole Miami Valley for only one George Mitchell, and he cannot be the son of Richard and Rachel since he bought his land, six miles south of John Mitchell, in 1840. It appears that it would take a great deal of work to prove conclusively that Delcina married her sister's brother-in-law, but I am assuming that in fact brothers married sisters in this case. Delcina's tombstone gives her death date and age at death, as do those of her children who died as infants [Wattman, 1999]. The record gives her name as "R. Delcina wife of G. W.". Note that Delcina died just one week after giving birth to Anna, who lived less than ten months. The two children of George W. and Delcina P. (Frazee) Mitchell:

1	Freeman A., son, born 31 May 1873 and died 7 Aug 1873.
2	Anna L., daughter, born 30 Nov 1874, died 27 Sep 1875 and was buried in Lostcreek.

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Letitia, daughter, born 1839/1840 in Lostcreek Twp. There are three marriage records in Miami County, any of which might conceivably pertain to Letitia:   Mitchell, Lelitia W. Kelly, Weldon 1856 Mitchell, Leltitia Reed, Robert 1856 Mitchall, Leutitia Rapp, Benjamin F. 1858 The first two are a little early for Letitia, but she would have been of a marriageable age in 1858. There were very few records for "Mitchall" in the county, so there is probably at least one misspelling in the third record, possibly two. A search of the 1880 census index failed to turn up Letitia as the wife of any of the three men above.

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Hannah E. daughter, born 11 Aug 1843 in Lostcreek Twp., died 18 Jul 1873 and was buried in Lostcreek. Hannah E. was married 1866 in Miami to Henry Froliger {born 1841/1842 in Germany, and died after 1880}. The Miami Valley Genealogical Index [MVGI] lists Marriage License #10215 for Henry Froliger and Hannah E. Mitchell, from which we have her middle initial. Hannah's birth and death are from tombstone date and age at death, as reported by Wattman. The first three children listed for this family are from Daley [1999], who had approximate birth dates only for William L. and Nettie. Those two, with Edward E., were named in Guardianship proceedings in Probate Court in 1877 [Case 6089]. Presumably Sarah was old enough to not require a guardian after her mother died. The next year, 1878, a Habeas Corpus was filed in Probate Court for a Jeannetta Froliger. Was the court trying to find another daughter for Guardianship proceedings? In the 1880 Lost Creek census [pg. 117D], Henry, a farm laborer, was recorded as 38, "Willie L." 14, Nettie 12 and Edward 9 years of age, the three children all born in Ohio. Finally, there was possibly yet another, older son Henry, Jr. in this family, as several rather interesting records for him appear from 1880 through 1896. Both Henry Froliger and H. F. Froliger are indexed on page 7 of an1894 Miami County Atlas for that township. In 1888 Henry appeared before the Probate Court in criminal proceedings [Case #08412] and twice again in 1896 [Cases #11058 and 11168]. However, since he was never listed as "Jr.", and we have no other record connecting him to Hannah and Henry, I do not at this time list him as a son in the family. Mike Daley notes Henry's surname as Frolicher from the 1860 census where he was a laborer on James and Sarah (Mitchell) Long's farm. There was no Frolicher in the 1835 Miami County Census. I originally had it that Henry was born in Germany, but the 1880 census states that he and both of his parents were born in Switzerland. The four children of Henry and Hannah E. (Mitchell) Froliger:

1	Sarah, daughter.
2	William L., son, born 1865/1866 in Ohio.
3	Nettie, daughter, born 1867/1868 in Ohio. The MVGI gives marriage license #19981 for Nettie and Robert.
4	Edward E., son, born 1870/1871.

ix

Creson/Cressin B. son, born 20 Jan 1844 in Lostcreek Twp. Creson/Cressin B. married Emma C. ____ {born 18 Apr 1849 in Miami County, Ohio}. Creson's name I read as Eresen? from the 1850 census, where his age was given as one year, and the USGenWeb index read it as Cusen. Andrew Burdett read it as Creson from the (somewhat faint) "tree" [Burdett, 1999a]. The age corresponds to a birth year of 1848/49. In 1880, the Kansas census listed him as Cressin B.:   Cressin B. MITCHELL Self M Male W 34 OH Farmer NY PA Emma C. MITCHELL Wife M Female W 31 OH Keeping House OH OH Emma TRUE Other S Female W 22 OH Servant OH OH The birth years derived from these 1880 ages are 1845/46 and 1848/49 for Cressin and Emma, respectively. The birthplace of New York for his father is incorrect, and was matched in Mary Alice Mitchell's 1880 census record in Lawrence which had both her parents as born in New York. Cressin and Emma settled in Lawrence 25 Mar 1879, according to the internet genealogical site of Lineages, Inc. which shows on its "Kansas Settlers" page:   C. B. Mitchell born 18 Apr 1849 in Miami Co., to Lawrence 25 Mar 1879. Mrs. Emma C. Mitchell born 20 Jan 1844 in Miami Co., to Lawrence 25 Mar 1879. The birth years in this latter record are exactly backwards from the 1880 census the following year, and I think it highly probably that the Settler's record got them backward. I'm adopting the specific birth dates from the Settlers page but switching their assignment in accord with the census data. This also agrees with his age of one year on the 1850 census, which is unlikely to be off by five years. There seems to be no record of their marriage in Miami County, Ohio, nor anywhere else in the area covered by the Miami Valley Ohio Genealogical Index. If she was indeed born in Miami County, it might be that she was living elsewhere when she married.

Mary Alice⁴ Mitchell & Aaron Markley

Richard1, Mahlon2, Richard3, Mary Alice4

Jacob1, Hans Jacob2, Hans Jacob "Joggi"3, Hans Geörg4, George5, George6, Aaron7, Marguerite8