From "HISTORY OF THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY,"  Vol. I, page 384.
Brant & Fuller, 1890.


ALEXANDER MITCHELL

Alexander Mitchell, one of the earliest settlers of Wheeling, was a 
native of Pennsylvania.  He came to the Wheeling region in the times 
of Indian warfare, and settled upon land six miles northeast of the 
site of the city.  As an Indian scout in the government employ he 
rendered valuable service.  He was a great lover of horses, and had 
the reputation of owning the fastest horses in the country.  To him 
and his wife, whose maiden name was Kelley, the following children 
were born: Samuel, Isaac, Alexander, Zachariah; Nancy, who married 
Zachariah Jacob; and James.  The latter only is living.  Isaac W. 
Mitchell, one of these children (born in 1810, died in 1866), was a 
farmer by occupation, and was also engaged for a time in pork-
packing.  He was a prosperous man, owned at one time 640 acres of 
land, and was the largest sheep owner in the county, having at one 
period 1,800 Merino sheep.  Under the old Virginia law he became 
sheriff by purchase, and held that office in Ohio county for eighteen 
years successively.  His wife was Sallie, daughter of John White, who 
died in 1848.  They had five sons: Alexander, John W., Zachariah J., 
Andrew W. and Samuel.  Alexander removed to Lexington, Mo., and 
engaged in banking, and died there in 1879.  Zachariah is now an 
attorney-at-law in St. Louis.  Andrew was a cotton broker of St. 
Louis, and died in 1867.  Samuel is now clerking in St. Louis. John 
W. Mitchell, now clerk of the circuit court of Ohio county, was born 
at Wheeling, December 31, 1838, He received his educations at Mt. 
Olive, N. J., and at an Episcopalian school, near Alexandria, Va., 
and then selecting the profession of law as his vocation, read law 
with his uncle, Zachariah Jacob, until the outbreak of the war, when 
he went south, and joined the confederate army.  He enlisted as 
lieutenant in the Twenty-seventh Virginia regiment, of the Stonewall 
brigade, and after four years' service, was mustered out as major. In 
1865 he returned to Wheeling, and was appointed deputy under Sheriff 
George R. Tingle, with whom he served, and also under Sheriff C. P. 
Brown, about two years.  In December, 1883, he was appointed clerk of 
the circuit court to fill a vacancy, and after serving four years was 
elected in 1887, to the same office, as the democratic candidate, for 
a term of six years.  He is a popular official and the office has 
been ably conducted under his management.  Mr. Mitchell was married 
in 1865, to H. Grace Woods, daughter of Andrew P. Woods, one of the 
old citizens of Wheeling, and four sons and one daughter have been 
born to them, of whom but one son, Elbert, survives. 


(Linda Fluharty)