Samuel Mitchel
Samuel Mitchel was born near Chambersburg, Franklin County, Pa., June 5, 1776. His father was a farmer, and with him Samuel remained until he was twenty-one years of age, the family having removed to Washington County, Pa., where the subject of this sketch remained a few years with his parents. In the spring of 1812 Samuel Mitchel emigrated to Wayne County, settling in Franklin Township, on the farm now owned by his son, Samuel Mitchel. On his arrival, he entered 160 acres of land, and soon thereafter purchased a quarter section more. He immediately put up a cabin in which to find shelter, and set himself to the task of clearing spaces for cultivation. In this rough diminutive cabin, built in haste and true primitive rudeness, the family lived for eight years, when he erected a more comfortable frame dwelling, in which they resided for twenty years, when in the same yard he built a still more commodious brick.
He was married January 6, 1808, in Washington County, Pa., to Mary McGugen, by which marriage he had four children, Jesse, Ann, Maria M. and Samuel. Jesse was a merchant in Fredericksburg, where he died February 7, 1839. Ann, the oldest daughter, died at the age of nine years, September 3, 1818. Maria M., the second daughter, married John McClellan, and lives in Wooster.
He died on his farm in Franklin Township, March 18, 1864. Mr. Mitchel was identified with the interests of Franklin Township for over half a century, and saw its transformation from a howling waste to pleasing and productive fields. He and Jacob Nixon were the two first Justices elected after the organization of the township, June 7, 1820. He was elected Commissioner of Wayne County, in 1814, or two years after he came to the county. He was drafted in the war of 1812, but hired a substitute in the person of Caleb Bundy, whom he paid $100. Few of the backwoodsmen had more varied experience than he, but whether dealing with the treacherous Indians or fighting the bears and wolves that carried away his pigs and lambs, he ever managed to escape without serious harm.
His home was in the deep and solitary woods; there were no roads or avenues of travel; no near neighbors to come in case of danger; no markets and no money, Wooster existing but in name, with its few and scattered houses. It required the soldier's courage to encounter the situation. Among the desperate inhabitants of the forest whom he met was Simon Girty (Girty was the son of an Irishman, and for twenty years the Raw-head-and-bloody-bones of the border, produced when nature was in hell and disciplining herself to her worst mischief. He was a besotted human devil, a grog-burnt fiend, whose wife could no longer endure him, and who was killed by his paramour), "the white savage," "Whose vengeance shamed the Indian's thirst for blood; Whose hellish arts surpassed the Red Man's fear; Whose hate enkindled many a border war."
On one occasion, he came to Mr. Mitchel's house and made inquiry for horses, which was the source of indescribable dread and terror to the family. Mr. Mitchel was originally a Presbyterian but when he came to Wayne County he united with the old Seceder church at Wooster, then under the pastorate of Rev. Samuel Irvine. He subsequently united with the Associate Reformed body, under Rev. James Peacock, and when, in after years, the two churches united and consolidated into what is now known as the United Presby- terian Church, he became a member of it.
Samuel Mitchel, his youngest child, was born in Franklin Township, September 28, 1820. His occupation until within several years has been that of a farmer. He remained with his father on the old homestead, which he now owns, until his death, continuing thereafter upon it until 1868, when he removed to Wooster. He was married May 24, 1849, to Mary A. McClellan, sister of John McClellan. He has been a hardworking, industrious, frugal man, and by the exercise of economony and care has acquired a competency which enables him to live in comfort and retirement. He is a quiet, unassuming, upright citizen and honest man. He united with the Presbyterian church in 1859, since which time he has been a member.
From History of Wayne County, Ohio, From the Days of the Pioneers and First Settlers to the Present Time, by Robert Douglass, 1878