William Chrismas MITCHELL
Sex: M
Birth: 23 JAN 1807 in Sparta, White, TN
Death: 2 JUN 1863 in West Sugar Loaf, Marion county, Arkansas
Burial: JUL 1863 Lead Hill, Harrison county, Arkansas

Military Service: Colonel, 14th ARK INF REGT Confederate State Army

Note: Investigated Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Utah in Sept. 18571860 Census Sugar Loaf Township, Arkansas 1840 and 1850 Census Carrol county, Arkansas

Occupation: Arkansas State Senator

Father: William MITCHELL b: 4 FEB 1774 in Hawkins county, Tennessee
Mother: Nancy DYER b: 1777 in Marion county, Tennessee

Marriage: 1 Nancy Isabella DUNLAP b: 27 FEB 1811 in Stokes county, North Carolina
Married: 2 JUN 1831 in TN

Children:
1. John H. MITCHELL
2. Elvira G. MITCHELL
3. Charles Roark MITCHELL b: 29 FEB 1832 in Tennessee
4. Joel Dyer MITCHELL b: 7 DEC 1833 in Missouri
5. Samuel MITCHELL b: 15 MAR 1836 in Carroll county, Arkansas
6. Robert Henry MITCHELL b: 11 MAY 1838 in Carroll county, Arkansas
7. William Chrismas MITCHELL III b: 12 JUL 1840 in Carroll, county, Arkansas
8. Richard MITCHELL b: ABT 1843 in Arkansas
9. Jesse MITCHELL b: 6 JAN 1845 in Carrollton, Arkansas
10. Sarah C. MITCHELL b: 6 SEP 1847 in Carrol co., Arkansas
11. Mark MITCHELL b: 1850
12. Prudence A. MITCHELL b: ABT 1852
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Colonel Mitchell lived first at Carrollton and served as Carroll County Clerk when Arkansas was admitted to the union 1836.He was appointed postmaster at Crooked Creek ,forerunner of Harrison,January 14 1846.He served 14 years as state senator from Carroll and later Marion County.

Two of his son's ,a daughter in-law ,grandson and many of his wife's family died in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

He was the one who contacted the Arkansas congressional delegation to secure the location and return of the massacre survivors . Mitchell was then appointed special agent of the U.S. Goverment to go to Forth Leavenworth Kanas to receive and return the surviors of the massacre.

He was a member of the State Senate when Arkansas seceded from the Union .He was the organizer and first Colonel of the 14th Arkansas InfantryC.S.A.He was captured in Pea Ridge ,imprisoned by the Union forces and later released .

He came home sick and died .He is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery near his home. His original gravestone was removed and later a soldier's marker was installed

Senator Mitchell Photo was from the book "History of Boone County "coustesy of Ronald Mitchell.
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This William C. Mitchell, born in 1807, lost two sons, a daughter-in-law, and an infant grandson to the Mountain Meadow Massacre in Utah in September, 1857. Charles Roark Mitchell, born February 9, 1832, Charles's wife, Sarah (Baker) Mitchell, born 1836,an infant son, John, and Charles's brother, Joel Dyer Mitchell, born December 7, 1833. Joel Dyer was not married nor had any children at the time of his murder. (See heading "Mountain Meadow Massacre" or"The Life and Confession of John D. Lee, Morman Elder" parts 1 and 2 published in 1877 and available on the Internet for facts about this terrible disaster.)

In 1859, this William C. Mitchell was appointed a Special Agent and travelled to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas to receive the seventeen surviving children who were brought there by the Army under the leadership of Capt. James Lynch. William Mitchell then returned the children to Carrollton, Arkansas and then to their respective families.

William C. Mitchell wrote letter after letter to Congressmen and Senators, etc seeking justice for his children. His wife, Nancy Isabell Dunlap, lost two brothers, the brothers' wives and about 12 children in the Massacre. Three children from each brother who were babies at the time of the massacre were spared and returned to their families They were part of the seventeen survivors.
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