Robert A. Mitchell
Robert A. Mitchell was born October 26, 1833. His father was Alexander Mitchell and his mother was Eleanor Foster. They were married in Adams County and had six children. Of those living beside our subject are Mrs. Margaret Burwell, wife of Samuel Burwell, of West Union; Mrs. Sarah Barber and Mrs. Martha Mackay. of Portsmouth. Mr. Mitchell was born on Beasley's Fork of Brush Creek, where his father had a saw and grist mill. His father died on June 4. 1835, of Asiatic cholera, as related in another place in this work. After his father's death. William Kirker settled the estate and the family moved to the William Kirker farm, where our subject lived until 1852. At seventeen, he served a two years' apprenticeship at the cabinet making trade with George Lafferty and Joseph Hayslip. In 1852, he went to Ironton and engaged in pattern making for the Olive Foundry and Machine Works. In 1854, he returned to Portsmouth and engaged in the same occupation with Ward, Murray & Stephenson, and remained in this business all the time until 1870. At that time, he went into the brick business at Sciotoville under the firm name of McCormick, Porter & Co. He took the management of it and remained there for two years, when the business was changed into a corporation under the name of the Scioto Fire Brick Company. He became the manager of that and remained there until July, 1872, when they sold that and built the Star Brick Works below Sciotoville, under the name of McConnel, Towne & Co. It continued under that for five years, when it became the Scioto Star Fire Brick Works. He was manager and stockholder. In 1882, he went to Logan with W. Q. Adams, and built a fire brick works. He removed from there to Columbus and engaged in pattern making with the Scioto Valley Railroad Company and the Columbus Machine Company. In 1884. he removed to Portsmouth and was manager of the Portsmouth Fire Brick Company. In 1886, he went with the Star Brick Works and remained until 1897, and then went into the Portsmouth Planing Mill and was there one year. Since February, 1899, he has been with the Star, below Sciotoville.
He was first married in 1886 to Jane Miller. The children of this marriage were Frank, of Columbus, lately deceased; Mary, married Frank Brown and lives in Clay City, Kentucky, and William C, who lives in
Dayton, Ky. His first wife died on February 11, 1866, and on February 11, 1868, he was married in Portsmouth, Ohio, to Miss Maggie Wylie. The children of this marriage are Wylie T., a physician, practicing at Greenfield. Ohio, and married to Miss Minnie Eberhardt, of Portsmouth, Ohio; a daughter, Etta, married to William Mathews; Nellie, Anna Laurie and Robert. There are three children deceased, Maggie, died at the age of eighteen, and the other two in childhood. His mother is still living, past ninety-three years of age, and is remarkably well preserved for her years.
Mr. Mitchell is a man of strict integrity and business honor. He is a Republican in politics. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, Ohio, and has been an elder in that church for five or six years past.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900