Obituaries: Joe Mitchell, 1939, Winn Parish, LA
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies, 120 Ted Price Lane, Winnfield, LA 71483
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From: March 2, 1939 Winn Parish Enterprise

Death Claims Joe Mitchell of Wheeling

Last Rites Were Held At Mt. Zion Methodist Church

The death angel visited the home of Joe Mitchell of the Wheeling Community on
February 23, his birthday, and called him home just at the close of his 83rd
year.

Mr. Mitchell had a stroke of paralysis on February 11, which he was unable to
overcome since he had suffered two previous strokes that left him weak and
feeble.  He lived just twelve days.

"Uncle Joe", as he was commonly known, was one of the oldest and most esteemed
citizens of Winn Parish.  It is generally known why he came to live in this
part of the country, but would be interesting to his many friends left behind,
to look back a few years.

In the year 1855 there was quite a move on for the people of Alabama to move
to Louisiana and Texas because of the fact that their land could be
homesteaded, land which was very fertile and upon which grew beautiful timber
as well as all sorts of wild animals.  Several families were packing up and
moving to these states.  In Coosa County, Alabama, there lived a man by the
name of Isaac Mitchell.  He was the frontier type.  Many Mitchells had
migrated to Alabama from Tennessee and it is believed that either he or his
ancestors came from there.  Back in this there is no definite history but it
is logical to believe that back in the colonial days his ancestors had come
from England and settled in the American Colonies, people who were poor in the
financial aspect but rich in ambition and industry.

Isaac Mitchell decided to move to Texas.  On his way there he came through
Louisiana.  While passing through what is now Winn Parish, a political
subdivision of North Louisiana, he met some of his friends who had previously
moved from Alabama and settled in Louisiana and who now induced him to stop
over awhile with them for the purpose of hunting wild animals of the vicinity. 
Here home could be had by merely clearing land, building a house, and living
there for several years; the soil and climate were very favorable for the
growing of cotton, corn, potatoes, peanuts, and watermelons; the forests were
full of squirrels, turkeys, deer, hogs, and cattle for eating, wild fur-
bearing animals for trapping during the winter season and fishes in the
rivers, creeks, and branches for catching in the spring and summer.

It wasn't long before Isaac Mitchell came to the conclusion that this was an
ideal location for a man who loved frontier life, who had not many early
possessions but who was industrious and ambitious for a home.  Mr. Mitchell
with his small family settled her in the old Wheeling vicinity.  His wife,
formerly a Miss Robbins, was also a native of Alabama.

Several children were born to the family; one of these was named Joe.  As the
boys and girls grew up, the family realized that the great disadvantage of
living in this locality was the lack of adequate schools for the education of
the boys and girls.  Joe, together with some of the other boys of the
community, walked from Wheeling to Mars Hill to school, a distance of about
three miles.  The natural consequence of this educational disadvantage was
that the children didn't get much formal schooling.

The children of Isaac Mitchell grew up during the period of the Civil War and
had many experiences with the soldiers and with robbers, a band of which
settled at the Wheeling vicinity about this time in order to take money and
other valuable possessions from travelers.

After building himself a homestead, Joe Mitchell married in April, 1883, a
Miss Olivia Gardner, who with her parents had moved from South Carolina to
Sparta, Bienville Parish, when she was only 12 years old.  To them were born
four children: Ed Mitchell, Mrs. Melton Davison, Miss Belle Mitchell, and Mrs.
Josie Davidson, all of whom, and their mother, Mrs. Olivia Mitchell, survive
their father.

Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. Jasper Brown of Ball, Louisiana,
an old friend of the family, and Rev. Jones of Montgomery, Louisiana, at the
Mt. Zion Methodist Church.