Biography of Arthur Stillman Mitchell This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography, including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 359-360 Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. ARTHUR STILLMAN MITCHELL was born in Mexico, Oxford county, Maine, September 17, 1840, a son of Alfred and Lydia L. Mitchell, also both natives of Oxford county, Maine. Alfred Mitchell spent his whole life in that vicinity and died there December 28, 1891, at the age of eighty-two years. His father, Joseph Mitchell, died at Buffalo, New York, of typhoid fever while in the United States army during the war of 1812. His ancestors came from England in the year 1623. His mother, who bore the maiden name of Miss Lydia L. Austin, died February 5, 1860, at the age of forty-two years. She was the daughter of Henry Austin, a veteran of the war of 1812, who died in 1865. He was of Scotch descent. August 30, 1862, Mr. Mitchell enlisted for three years at Carthage, Maine, and joined Company H, Tenth Maine Infantry, which was then a part of the Twelfth Corps, army of the Potomac. He served in this regiment until its discharge in April, 1863, when the Tenth Maine Batallion was formed and made provost guard at Twelfth Army corps headquarters. Mr. Mitchell was assigned to Company B of this batallion, and served with the Army of the Potomac through the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns. After the battle of Chickamauga the Twelfth Corps was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, but in February, 1864, the Tenth Maine Batallion was assigned to the department of the Gulf, and went to New Orleans. In May following it became a part of the Twenty-ninth Veteran Volunteer Infantry, and Mr. Mitchell joined Company A of that regiment at Morganzia Bend, Louisiana. In the following July the Nineteenth Corps, to which the Twenty-ninth Maine belonged, was sent to the relief of the capitol at Washington. and subsequently took a prominent part in Sheridan's brilliant Shenandoah Valley campaign. At Cedar Creek, Virginia, the company to which Mr. Mitchell belonged went into action with forty muskets, and returned with only twelve, under the command of a corporal, all the senior officers having been disabled. During the battle his brigade broke through the rebel lines, but were recalled by General Sheridan in person and held until the main army came up, and then a grand charge was ordered, and this order was obeyed in the fullest sense of the word. During the engagement our subject received three slight wounds, none of which unfitted him for service, but a short time afterward he was seriously injured by accident while building winter quarters. He received his honorable discharge May 31, 1865. In 1866 Mr. Mitchell settled in Rockford, Illinois, and was employed for a time in a factory, but soon after went to Mineral Point, Wisconsin, where he taught school during the winters and worked at the carpenter trade during the summers, and was also engaged to some extent in hop culture. We next find him in La Crosse, Wisconsin, engaged in the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, but in 1877 he left this business and locality and went to Oakwood township, Brookings county, South Dakota, and located a homestead and a tree claim. In 1878 he operated a locating office and located many settlers and the following year he moved his business to Volga and continued it there until 1880, assisting immigrants in their search for homes, having secured purchasers and homesteaders for forty thousand acres of land during the year 1 880. He continued in the real estate and collection business, a part of the time in partnership with Judge Truman, with whom he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in March, 1890. He is now also operating a number of farms. April 6, 1870, Mr. Mitchell was united in marriage to Miss Emma Celia Dalton, a daughter of Nicholas Dalton, of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Mrs. Mitchell died in September, 1888, at the age of thirty- seven years, and he subsequently married Miss Flora Axford, a native of St. Thomas, Ontario, and daughter of Richard H. Axford, of Castlewood, South Dakota. This union has been blessed by the advent of two children, Arthur Herbert and Emma Celia. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are members of the Christian church of Volga, of which Mr. Mitchell was one of the organizers in 1893, and has since held the office of deacon. He is affiliated with the Mystic lodge, A. F. & A. M., being a member of the order since 1867; and is also a member of the Volga lodge, No. 98, I. O. O. F., and the Union encampment at Brookings, which he helped to organize. He also helped to organize the Hancock post, G. A. R.; at Oakwood, which has since been disbanded. Politically Mr. Mitchell has been a lifelong Republican, and has filled several of the local offices and attended many of the county and state conventions. He is a notary public in Brookings county, and his first commission is dated June, 1878. He was chairman of the Brookings county delegation to the state constitutional convention at Sioux Falls, in 1883, being enraged there about three weeks. He was also chairman of the committee of agriculture.