Colonel David Dawson Mitchell

   Cause of his death was Jaundice.

  General Notes:

His son, Dave Joseph Mitchell says in a Manitoba affidavit that Colonel Mitchell was his father, and that he was a scotchman.

DD Mitchell was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs during most of the time from 1841 to 1853. Born in Louisa County, VA, he became a clerk for the American Fur Company in St. Louis in 1828. He built Fort McKenzie in 1832. Another fur trading post, Fort Mitchell, was named after him in 1833. In the Mexican War he was the Lt. Col. of the Second Missouri volunteers, commanded by Col. Sterling Price. When Price an Col. Alexander Doniphan became involved in Indian troubles, Mitchell was ordered to lead the advance towards Chihuahau. the troops lacks supplies or funds. Mitchell then gallantly escorted Senora Tules, the gambling queen of Santa Fe, to a fandago, and so flattered her with his attention that she lent cash to move the troops.In 1855 he promoted theMissouri and California overland mail and transportation company and became its president. He supplied mules for the army in the Mormon war of 1858.

While DD Mitchell was at Fort Union in the 1830's, he met his Indian wive, the daughter of Francois Deschamps. Larpenteur writes that DD married one of the notorious "Deschamps sisters". Her name was Josephte Nancy Deschamps. David Mitchell was son in law to the notorious Francois Deschamps, and the entire family was killed about 1834 with a young son of five years old surviving along with the two daughters. The two daughters, presumably, are Josephte Nancy Deschamps and Marie Deschamps according to Manitoba affidavits. THe five year old boy was taken to St. Louis to learn the Coopers trade. Later, in 1837, there was a note in a journal stating that Mitchell's squaw died of smallpox. This must be a third Indian wife, or in error, because Marie and Josephte are alive in the 1840's. Marie was the mother of Joseph aka Dave Mitchell. Dave Mitchell was the father of Daniel Mitchell. He returned to St. Louis and married Martha Eliza Berry.

June/July 1836 - Col Mitchell took the daughters of Deschamps to Blackfeet country - there is some connection there.

Lucy Ann Delaney, a slave, was given to DD Mitchell and Martha as a wedding gift. In the African American Review, the author wrote that Martha may have been on the border of manic depressive. The slave won a freedom suit against DD Mitchell and Martha Eliza and gained her freedom.

He was an honorary member of the St. Andrew's Society of the State of New York "The St Andrew's Society of the State of New York is arguably the most prestigious of all Scottish organisations in the United States - and possibly the world. It is a veritable Who's Who of power and influence, and at one time owned the land where the New York Stock Exchange sits"

Nominated for Governor by Whigs of Liberty

He was a member of the St. Louis Jockey club organized at the Prairie House. Horse-racing was very popular in St. Louis at an early period of the city's history, and to the pony contests of the colonial period succeeded the trials of speed between thoroughbreds, which attracted large assemblages to the "prairie horse-track" on the north side of the St. Charles Rock road, immediately opposite the ground on which the Abbey track was subsequently established by Henry Doyer. One of the famous races on this course was the four-mile heat race in 1848 between the runners "Doubloon" and "Emily," which was won by the latter, ridden by the well-known jockey Gilpatrick. A jockey club was organized in 1828, and the races of that year commenced on Thursday, October 9th, and continued three days, — first day, three miles and repeat, for a purse of two hundred dollars; second day, two miles and repeat, for a purse of one hundred and fifty dollars; third day, one mile and repeat, for a purse of one hundred dollars, free for any horse, mare, or gelding. The racing was governed by the rules and regulations of the association, of which Benjamin Ames was the secretary

Interesting reminence by Richard Smith Elliott in his book "Notes taken in 60 years" about the fact that DD Mitchell was offered the Governorship of the new Minnesota territory but turned it down. Here's an excerpt

Col. D. D. Mitchell, of St. Louis, was tendered the Governorship of Minnesota Territory, then just organized, but declined. He only wishe dot be reinstated as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis. ..While in Washington, at Taylor's inauguration, Col. Mitchell said to me that he would propose my appointment as Governor of Minnesota, adn was very sure that I would be chosen, as he was very intimate with the President (Zachary Taylor at the time, March 1849). With absurd modesty I declined. I never even thought, then, that Col. Mitchell, under whom I had served as Indian agent, might be a better judge than I of my qualifications.

According to him, the Blackfeet gave him the Indian name Spotted Elk

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Discovered that his children were sent to live with his sister Elizabeth Fible in Kentucky, probably after their mother died. Their aunt raised them most likely according the 1860 census I found. I always wondered what became of his children after he died; I knew he was living in the Planter's House before he died.

He's buried with his wife, Martha, in lot 23 at Calvary Cemetery St. louis.

timeline DD Mitchell from book Karl Bodmer's Studio Art

July 6, 1833 Mitchell in command of the Flora as well as Fort McKenzie. Left Fort Union for
Fort McKenzie including Maximilian - took five weeks.
"Over the next five weeks he came to know all of these people well, including David Mitchell,
who was in command of the Flora as well as Fort McKenzie. An experienced trader and
Indian-country hand, Mitchell was very helpful to Maximlian, who in turn befriended Mitchell's
metis wife, a daughter of Deschamps, a French hunter for the Upper Missouri Outfit, and a
Cree woman. Two Bodmer portraits of a Cree woman at Fort Union depict Mrs. Deschamps,
the mother of Mrs. Mitchell. Other passengers on the Flora included Alexander Culbertson,
who had joined the American Fur Company in 1833 and was making his first journey into
Indian country, and a Blackfeet woman who was returning to her people." 52 crew and
passengers, 504 mile trip.

"Most of those on board lived and slept in the open, either ashore or on the boat's deck.
Maximilian shared the Flora's tiny cabin, eight paces long, with Bodmer, Dreidoppel, Mr and
Mrs. Mitchell, Culbertson, and the Blackfeet woman. The Mitchells and the prince, probably
more out of deference to his age than to his status, used the cabin's two beds while the rest
slept on the floor. "Guns hung on the ceiling and walls, the traveling bags and chests had been
suitably distributed and moved to the side," Maximilian wrote, adding, "we slept very well on
our buffalo hides with blankets."

----------excerpt from Dona Tules: Santa Fe's courtesan and gambler

notes 36 regarding DD Mitchell, the cultivated Mitchell married two or more Indian women according to their traditions siring Assiniboine and Sac and Fox children. But unquestionably, Mitchell would have never left his beloved Martha Eliza, the city wife whom he married in 1940. Mary Mitchell (1828-1919) Sac and Fox daughter of David D Mitchell and Julia Mitchell
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DD according to Julia Mitchell was in the army stationed in Wisconsin about 1826-27 where they met. In 1800 Wisconsin became part of Indiana territory. Even so the British still had control over the fur trade and alliances with the tribes there. In 1812 the US fought with the british July 1814. The Americans built Fort Shelby at Prairie De Chien. This is possibly where Mitchell was stationed when he met Julia. After the treaty with the British Wisconsin became part of Illinois territory. Fort Crawford was built over the site of Fort Shelby in 1816 & and a part of Michigan territory in 1818. There was the Winnebago war of 1827 and possibly Mitchell participated in this. Lead mining was the attraction in Wisconsin and thousands rushed there to dig for gray gold. Mitchell did move to Jefferson Co Kentucky when he was a child of about 2 years old in 1808. Probably enlisted in the military when he was about 18 years old - aprox 1824. As of this time, cannot find any enlistment records. Not sure if he enlisted in Kentucky and then went straight to Wisconsin or spent time elsewhere.

Note have seen an alternate death date of May 31 1861. However, according to Calvary cemetery, the death date is May 23, 1861.

  Research Notes:

"MT. PLEASANT, CARROLL, CO., ARK.
September 14, 1859. "Col. Mitchell has arrived home with the surviving children of the Mountain Meadow massacre, except two of the oldest who were detained at Salt Lake City as witnesses. He will deliver them to their nearest relatives on to-morrow, at Carrolton -- the most of them belonging in this and Marion county, and I believe the remainder in Johnson. I was intimately acquainted with the most of the persons killed in that train, and it almost chills the blood in my veins to think of the horrible affair, and how those little fellows have suffered. It does seem to me that our Government at least ought to make ample provision for the education and raising of those children.



Interesting part of history the year of his death, 1961. President Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States, and the Civil War commenced. Lincoln warned the South in his Inaugural Address: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you.... You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect and defend it."

Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun.

Another notable fact remained that On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. Only a few short years after Mitchell's death, the slaves were freed. Of course, Mitchell had been embroiled in an ugly court battle over a slave that was wrongly kept.

In the month of May, the early weeks, D. D. became ill from an undisclosed illness resulting in jaundice. I found an old obituary in the Liberty news stating that he was at the Planters House when he died. I'm not sure if he lived there or was there seeking treatment. He was treated by a doctor during the last weeks of his illness.
In 1841 Planters House opens in downtown St. Louis as the city’s most exclusive hotel. It is considered at the time the finest hotel in the West. A year later British novelist Charles Dickens stays there when he visits St. Louis and gives it rave reviews. Later the drink “Planter’s Punch” is concocted by the hotel’s bartender, and some claim the Tom Collins was also born here. This is the hotel that D.D. Mitchell dies at.

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Via Julia Mitchell history, Col Mitchell was at Rock Island when they met aprox 1826-7

  Medical Notes:

Jaundice according to death certificate, buried at Calvary cemetery
notes say he was buried May 23, 1861a slight difference

David married Marie (possibly Rattling Bag was her Indian name?) Deschamps, daughter of Francois Deschamps Sr. and Mother Deschamps.

David next married Josephte Nancy Deschamps, daughter of Francois Deschamps Sr. and Mother Deschamps, in 1834 in Fort Union.

David next married Martha Eliza Berry, daughter of Major Taylor Berry and Frances S. aka Fanny Christy Berry Wash, in 1840 in St. Louis. (Martha Eliza Berry was born in 1824 in Missouri and died on 9 Apr 1854 in St. Louis Calvary cemetery.)

David next married Julia Indian: Ann-na-mo-tha Mitchell. (Julia Indian: Ann-na-mo-tha Mitchell was born in 1810 in Wisconsin and died on 8 Jun 1880 in Sauk & Fox tribal cemetery, Oklahoma.)

David next married Unknown Sauk & Fox Woman.