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Surnames: Mitchell, Morrison, Purviance, Ireland, Jones
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/gh.2ADI/4494.2
Message Board Post:
Elijah Mitchell is our most remote ancestor of this name, of whom we have any
knowledge. He was born in Ireland, March 6, 1761. He came to the "new world"
sometime before the Revolutionary war. The fact that he had several brothers and sisters
of tender age, leads us to the supposition that the parents must have immigrated to
America with their family. We first hear of Elijah in Mecklinburg county, North Carolina,
where he espoused the cause of his adopted country. A sister, Nancy Mitchell, was born
April 17, 1766. She married David Ireland, who was a brother of Elijah's wife.
Elizabeth, another sister, married James Fleming. They were ancestors of the Flemings,
who were among the early settlers around Warren, Indiana, and whose posterity remained
there for many years. Gavin Mitchell, a brother, has descendants in Preble county, Ohio.
Elijah Mitchell was a "minute-man" in the war for independence. From the United
States Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Pensions, h!
as been received the following statement of his services:
Elijah Mitchell was born in Ireland, March 6, 1761. He enlisted in the Revolutionary
army in Mecklinberg county, North Carolina, and served the following enlistments: April
8, 1779, three months in Captain James Barr's Company, Col. McDowell's regiment;
------- 8, 1760, two weeks in Captain Ezra Alexander's Company; fall of 1780, two
weeks;------1780, four weeks in Captain -----------McRee's company; --------1780, and
a third enlistment for four weeks: July, 1781, Three months;. The Bureau records also
show the death of the soldier in Huntington county, Indiana.
After the close of the war, Elijah Mitchell married Sarah Ireland, daughter of John
and Martha (Purviance) Ireland. About the year 1787, he moved from Iredell county, North
Carolina, to Kentucky, and with a number of relatives and friends, started a new
settlement in Bourbon county, called Cane Ridge, from its luxuriant growth of cane.
In 1807 he again sought a new location,and joined some Cane Ridge friends who had
started a new settlement in Preble county, Ohio, near the present site of New Paris. In
September 1833 he accompanied his son, Flleming to Huntington county, Indiana. Elijah
Mitchell died August 1, 1847 at Bayon Mills, Huntington county, Indiana.
Elijah Mitchell is an ancestor of my husband's. Our line runs from Elijah to his son,
Eli, then to his son Leander Morrison Mitchell, then through his daughter Elizabeth Sarah
Mitchell, and then her daughter, Emma Elizabeth Wilson who is my husband's
grandmother. I don't know what Mitchells are still in the area, but if you're
looking for family history, I may be able to help you.
Barb Cary