CLIFFORD A. MITCHELL.

MISS CLIFFORD A. MITCHELL, superintendent of the Iola public schools, one of the popular educators of Kansas and a lady whose intellectual and professional attainments have won her an enviable place in the confidence and respect of the people of Iola, has just completed her tenth year in Kansas. She was born in Clark county, Ohio, and was reared there to her seventeenth year. She was educated in the schools of New Carlyle and in the Normal school for training teachers at Dayton, Ohio. Her introduction to the polite profession occurred in Ohio, but after her first year there, she followed her parents to Kansas and has since been prominently identified with educational work in this State. Her first years in her adopted State were spent in Fredonia as principal of the high school. At the beginning of the autumn term of 1893 she entered the high school at Iola as its principal and maintained herself admirably in that position till her final promotion in 1899 when she became City Superintendent of Schools.

Miss Mitchell is a daughter of Asa N. Mitchell of Iola, a native son of "the best State in the Union outside of Kansas," and was born September 9, 1840. The latter is a son of James Mitchell who was born at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1803, and who died in Clark county, Ohio, in 1859. During the early life of the last named he was engaged in the nursery business but his last years were passed in New Carlyle as a hotel-keeper. The paternal great-grandfather of our subject was a Scotch-Irishman. He settled at Jamestown, Virginia, and was the father of five sons and a daughter. The whole family emigrated to Ohio as pioneers and reared families there.

Asa N. Mitchell's mother was Elizabeth, a daughter of Philip Swigart. Her children were: Mary F., deceased, married Denny Minrow; Asa N., and Lida, wife of Edward H. Funston, of Allen county. Asa N. Mitchell became a teacher, when grown, and was engaged in the work in Taylorsville, Kentucky, when the war came on. He enlisted the first year of the war in the 16th Ohio Battery, with two other Allen county men, H. H. Funston and James W. McClure, and was mustered aboard a steamboat between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where the troops disembarked. The battery crossed the country to St. Louis and over into the interior of the State and, from Pilot Knob, crossed the State into Arkansas, bound for Helena. The 16th battery was with Hovey's Division during the Vicksburg campaign and was with Sherman at Jackson, Mississippi. Following the close of this campaign the battery went down the river to New Orleans and, soon thereafter, crossed the Gulf of Matsgorda, Texas, to join the forces intended for the interception of the Confederates when Banks should defeat and drive them out of Arkansas. Banks' failure to do his part made it necessary for the immediate return of the Federal forces to New Orleans and when they did Asa N. Mitchell was mustered out, his enlistment having expired.

Upon taking up civil life Mr. Mitchell became a bank clerk in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. From the bank he engaged in the fruit and nursery

business and has remained so, in the main, before and since his advent to Kansas.

In April, 1868. Mr. Mitchell married Fannie E., a daughter of the Rev. B. Rogers Johnson, a graduate of Bowdoin, College, a classmate of Henry W. Longfellow, and who carried off the honors of his class. He entered the ministry at New Carlyle, Ohio—his first charge—and died in the service of the same church. His wife was Julia Colton and three of their four children reside in Clark county, Ohio.

The first child of A. N. and Mrs. Mitchell is Clifford A. Mitchell. Their other children are Lieutenant Burton J. Mitchell, on the staff of Brigadier General Funston, in the Philippines, and Miss Florence Mitchell, one of Allen county's young teachers, and a graduate of the Iola high school.

Miss Mitchell is remarkably gifted and endowed as a teacher. Hers is a strong combination of intellect and a genius for directing affairs. While she is always the controlling influence in her educational work she is happily the confidante of her pupils. Her sincerity of purpose and her grace of manner attract both patron and pupil and all work together in harmony for the strength and efficiency of one of the best schools in Kansas. Miss Mitchell maintains her station as Superintendent well in her attendance upon county and State associations and in meeting ably the requirements of those bodies when responding to her number upon the program.

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