W. S. Mitchell, of Pleasant township, is a sturdy Butler county pioneer who has spent over forty-six years of his life in this county. Mr. Mitchell was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, in 1845. He is a son of Moses and Nancy (Meadows) Mitchell, both natives of North Carolina. They were the parents of twelve children. W. S. Mitchell attended school in his native State and in the State of Georgia, and when the Civil war broke out, he enlisted in the Sixth Georgia cavalry, and served under that great military genius, Gen. Joseph Wheeler, and every one familiar with the history of the campaigns of the Civil war knows of the activities and the fighting spirit of General Wheeler's division. Mr. Mitchell remained in the service in the Confederate army until the close of the war, and was with his command at Raleigh, N. C., when General Wheeler surrendered, and thus the struggle in behalf of the lost cause ended.

In October, 1866, Mr. Mitchell came to Kansas and settled in the vicinity of Hartford, Lyon county. He was engaged in farming there until 1870, when he came to Butler county and preempted 160 acres of land in Richland township. Four years later he sold this place and bought eighty acres in Pleasant township, which has since been his home. He now owns 280 acres in Pleasant township, and is one of the prosperous and progressive agriculturists of that fertile farming district.

While Mr. Mitchell, like other pioneers of the county, experienced many discouraging features in the early days, he has on the whole been successful, and, today, is one of the substantial citizens of the county, who may properly be called well-fixed, or in easy circumstances. When the grasshoppers devastated the country in 1874, Mr. Mitchell did not sit down and bemoan the loss of his crops, but he went to work and did something. He went to Arkansas that winter and worked at whatever he could find to do, while his wife remained on the home place, and cared for the children, and they managed to get along. When Mr. Mitchell first settled in Butler county, Emporia was the nearest railroad point, and all their supplies had to be hauled from there.

Mr. Mitchell was married in 1866 to Miss Elizabeth Jones, of Union county, Georgia, a daughter of Hampton Jones. The Jones family also came to Kansas in 1866, where they remained until 1870, when they, too, came to Butler county, settling in Richland township. The southern part of Butler county was wild, unbroken and sparcely settled when the Mitchell and Jones families came here. The native game and wild animals of the prairie were still in abundance there, and even Indians, some tame and others wild, frequently strolled across the country.

To Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have been born the following children: Mrs. Elvira Henshie, Sumner county, Kansas; Robert, Pu Allet, Wash.; Mrs. Martha Burns, Argonia, Kans.; Arthur, who lives on the home place, and three children are deceased.

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