My Genealogy Hound

JOHN C. MITCHELL is one of the early pioneer settlers of Harlan county, and is therefore entitled to a place in this history. He was born in Piscataquis county, Maine, March 29, 1850, and is one of the eleven children born to John and Charlotta (Littlefield) Mitchell, the former of whom, a farmer by occupation, was a native of Maine, born in the year 1800, and died after a long and useful life at the age of seventy-three. The latter was also a native of Maine and was born in 1803, and died at the age of seventy-two.

John C. spent his boyhood days in Maine, working about on his father’s farm in the summer and attending the neighboring district schools in the winter When about eighteen years of age he went to Upton, Worcester county, Mass., and for three years was engaged in farming. He emigrated to Nebraska in March, 1872, stopping for a short time in Johnson county, and finally, April 6, landed in Harlan county, where he homesteaded the northeast quarter of section 27, township 2, range 18 west. The first settlement made in the county had been the year previous, and the country naturally presented rather a barren appearance. Buffalo, deer, elk, antelope and wild turkey were plentiful while actual settlers were few and hard to find. In the immediate vicinity of Mr. Mitchell’s claim there were no settlers at all. He constructed a dug-out, fourteen by eighteen feet, in which he kept “bach” for one year, when it accidentally took fire in the chimney and burned, together with all his household effects. This was indeed a severe blow and at a time when he could least afford it. In the beginning he had little better than nothing to start with, and up to this time, crops having been a practical failure, he had made little progress. He killed an occasional deer or antelope, which constituted the greater part of his living for the first few years. On account of the grasshoppers and the drouth he was not able to raise anything like a fair crop of grain for six years. One year, during the grasshopper raids, he lost seventy-five acres of crops. He would hardly have been able to live under such circumstances had it not been for an occasional job of freighting from Lowell and Kearney, which paid him forty-five cents per hundred for a distance of fifty miles. His crops have been fairly good since 1878, and he has prospered in proportion. In 1884 he sold his old homestead and is at present living in the Republican valley, just south of Alma. He is the possessor of eight hundred acres of land in different parts of the county, and deals largely in stock. He was married in June, 1874, to Lizzie Schrack, who is a native of Illinois and was born July 16, 1854. Five children bless their happy home — Jessie E., Mabel E., Jasper E., Celia E. and Harry L.

In politics Mr. Mitchell is a republican and a firm believer in the principles of his party. He is now serving his second term as supervisor of Prairie Dog township, and is highly esteemed by all who know him.