THE CHARLES N. MITCHEL FAMILY

The Charlie Mitchel family and descendants, like the Bollmans, belonged to that vast group of agricultural people who won the West, who brought civilization to the wild frontier, put the great prairie states under the plow, and made them the bread basket of America.

It was not an easy life. The Mitchels were fairly represenative of these pioneers who faced heat and cold, dust and mud, crop failures and poor markets, floods, blizzards, grasshoppers, Indian attacks, hostility of stockmen, and a hundred other hardships.

Charles Mitchel has been described as a kind, good-natured man, with a cheerful smile, a restless spirit, and a homely face. He was full of jokes and simple stories. His favorite family joke was that he had no peace at his house, there was always a row at home. His wife was a Row the "ow" pronounced as in now. No doudt the steady, practical Elizabeth exerted a restraining influence on the exuberant Charles, but few better suited couples ever got together.

The early death of Charles at age 49 was a terrific shock to Elizabeth, but she hid her grief and despair, and for her daughters' welfare assumed the burden of operating the farm. She had offers of marriage, but turned them down saying there could be only one as good as Charles. For more than a score of years she managed the farm, then went to live with a daughter in Nebr. There she was a familiar figure driving a gray horse and buggy, doing kind deeds, and smoking her clay pipe by the fireside at night, "my one vice" she said with a smile reminiscent of Charles.

Elizabeth Row, see above, and Row 3.

Olive Maria, 1835-1913; b. N.Y. d. So. Dak., named after her grandmothers, one b. in Ireland, the other in Holland; m. Perry Clay Parke; 8 chd-. Alvah, Theodore, Braton, Alzora, Maynard, Mary, Ella, William.

Hannah Matilda, 1837-1915; b. N.Y. d. Okla. m. Wm. Jasper Walker; 4. chd: Oscar, Edgar, Perry, Wilbur.

Margaret Lorana, 1839-1909; b. Mich. d. Nebr. m. Madison Kirk; 2 chd: Riley, and Olive, who m. M. Christiansen.