OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

JOSEPH C. MITCHELL
Vol. 3, p. 1335-1336

The mark of popular confidence and approbation has been signally
accredited to this well known citizen of Bartlesville for not only
has he served in other positions of public trust in this community,
but he is now the efficient incumbent of the responsible and dual
office of county clerk and recorder of Washington County.

Mr. Mitchell has the distinction of having been born in the British
West Indies, and the year of his nativity was 1857. He was reared to
maturity in these fair isles of the Antilles and received a common-
school education. For ten years he was in the employ of the board of
trade department of London, England, and at the age of twenty-eight
years he established his home in Crawford County, Kansas, where he
continued to be engaged in mercantile pursuits for five years. In the
autumn of 1894 Mr. Mitchell established his residence in the present
thriving City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, though the place at that
time had a population of less than fifty persons. Here he was
employed about four years in the general merchandise store conducted
by Frank M. OVERLESS. For seven years thereafter he was local agent
for the American Express Company, and he is now serving his third
consecutive term in the office of county clerk and recorder, to which
he was first elected in 1910, his duties as an executive including
those applying also to the office of register of deeds, of which he
is ex-officio incumbent, the State Legislature having passed a law
combining the offices and this law having taken effect on the 1st of
January, 1915.

Mr. Mitchell is a staunch supporter of the cause of the republican
party, and prior to his election to his present office he had served
as city treasurer of Bartlesville and had been called to become one
of the first members of the board of education at the time the city
was incorporated. In 1900 he was one of the Government census
enumerators of Washington County. He is affiliated with the Knights
of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and both he and
his wife hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

In 1880 Mr. Mitchell wedded Miss Adele A. DARRELL, and her death
occurred in March, 1913. Of the three children of this union the
eldest is Lulu, who is the wife of Fred B. WOODWARD, of Dewey,
Washington County, this state; Ralph continued to maintain his home
at Bartlesville; and Gertrude died at the age of twenty-one years.
For his second wife, Mr. Mitchell married Mrs. Ethel PELSUE, who
presides graciously over their pleasant home.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Nelda Rowland, November 12, 1998.