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Jesse G. Mitchell was born in Franklin County, Ill., February 19, 1833, the son of Sion H. and Elizabeth (Cook) Mitchell, natives of Wilson County, Tenn. They came to Illinois in the year 1820, and settled in Franklin County, at that time covering the area now embraced in Franklin and Williamson Counties, old Frankfort being the county seat. Sion H. Mitchell was for some years school commissioner of his county, was in politics an old line Whig, and afterward a Republican. He, with his companion, was prominent among the early pioneer Methodists of this country. Their home was the home of the early itinerant ministers; they were also widely known as campers at the camp-meetings of those early days. Father Mitchell was a successful farmer, and successively held the positions of class-leader, steward and exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church. They
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both died at their post as Christian workers: the mother of the subject of this sketch October 20, 1867, aged about seventy-four years; the father, June 21, 1875, aged nearly seventy-eight years. They raised a family of twelve children-seven sons and five daughters. All lived to be grown and married, seven of whom- four sons and three daughters-still live in southern Illinois. Jesse G. Mitchell, the subject of this sketch, is the seventh son. Until the year 1866 he was a farmer exclusively, being very successful as a farmer. He engaged, in the fall of 1866, in the mercantile business on his farm known as Locust Grove, sixteen miles southeast of Benton, in Cave Township, until the spring of 1880. He then sold his farm and moved to Benton, his present place of residence, where we find him engaged in a large general merchandise store. On the 8th of September, 1853, he was marned to Asenath Ellen, daughter of Col. George R. and Sarah H. Marvel, born in Gibson County, Ind., December 18, 1836. Their children now living are Willis E., a merchant at Eldorado, Ill.; Sarah B., wife of Dr. P. S. Pope, in business with Mr. Mitchell; Thomas G., merchant at Eldorado, with Willis E. (the firm being Mitchell Bros.); John M., a merchant at Mount Carmel, IlL, and Charles E., in business with his father. Mr. Mitchell is a Republican, was many years postmaster at Locust Grove, and has twice been elected member of the county court. He is a Master Mason, Knight of Honor, and member of, and elder in, the Methodist Church. He is now most prominent as a successful merchant and an earnest Christian worker and minister in his town.