ca 1830 Mitchell Home and Cemetery
photos by Shirley Wersinger

  DESCRIPTION OF WILLIAM MITCHELL HOUSE
from National Register of Historic Places
Inventory - Nomination Form
LOCATION: North side of N. C. 350, 3 miles west of Ahoskie
CONDITION: Unaltered - Original Site
The William Mitchell House is a pleasant Federal farmhouse set amid a grove of large trees in the flat coastal plain farmland of Hertford County. Near the house, which is approached by a long, straight dirt road flanked by cultivated fields, are a number of well-preserved early frame outbuildings, including an office, schoolhouse, carriage house, and smokehouse. The dwelling is a two-story L-shaped structure of frame covered with plain weatherboards. The house, which rests on brick piers recently infilled with concrete blocks, is covered by a shallow gable roof of standing-seam tin. At each end of the front section and at the rear of the ell is as ingle- shoulder brick chimney with stepped weatherings and a molded cap. That on the west is of one-to-five common bond; the other two have no regular bonding pattern.
The main front (south) section of the house is five bays wide and two deep; the ell extends three bays to the rear, covering the two east bays of the rear facade of the main block. There are a number of one-story additions. Attached to the east side of the front section is a small,  one- story, two-bay wing covered by a gable roof. To the rear of this, adjoining the ell, is another, earlier gable-roof wing with a rear shed porch. It was originally a separate kitchen building. The two wings are joined by a flat-roof enclosed porch. Occupying the northwest corner between the main front section and the ell are two one-story shed additions; they extend across the rear facade of the front section and cover all but the rear bay of the ell.
The exterior finish of the two-story house is simple and handsome, having traditional Federal proportions but using some Greek revival elements. The windows, which contain nine-over- nine sash at the first level and nine-over-six at the second, have symmetrically molded frames with plain corner blocks and sills. The eaves are finished with a box cornice. The central front entrance is sheltered by a pedimented porch. Four paneled pillars, square in section, with molded caps, support a plain entablature. Similar pilasters occur on the facade at the ends of the porch. A heavy molded cornice frames the flush-sheathed tympanum. The porch is enclosed by a balustrade of thin square balusters between plain rounded rails, and the ceiling has long flat panels. The entrance consists of a wide single door beneath a transom. The whole is framed by a symmetrically molded architrave with plain corner blocks at the upper corners of door and transom; the lintel above the door is fluted. The door has seven raised panels: the arrangements is like that of a normal six-panel door, except that a narrow horizontal panel separates the two lower pairs of panels.
The interior of the front section follows a center-passage plan, one room deep; the ell, entered from the rear of the east room, contains a stair hall and a chamber behind. The finish, like that of the exterior, combines Federal and Greek Revival elements. The door and window frames of the main first-floor rooms employ a remarkable variety of symmetrical moldings and corner blocks. Several types of chair rails occur, including a wide one whose lower element is symmetrically molded like the door frames. In all main rooms there is a wainscot with a dado consisting of a single wide board, eighteen inches wide. Handsome carpenter locks remain on most of the doors, which are raised-paneled on one side and flat-paneled on the other. The five panels on most doors are arranged with a pair of long panels above and below a horizontal panel. The doors in the center passage have symmetrically molded architraves with deeply molded corner blocks centered with a square panel composed of four triangular pieces of wood. The rear door is like the front door but slightly shorter; the lintel on each is flat-paneled. The west parlor, the most elaborately finished room, has symmetrical architraves with a faceted center band and faceted-paneled corner blocks. The mantel features wide, symmetrical moldings, which flank the square fire opening and extend beneath the convex molded shelf. A short strip of the molding vertically bisects the flat-paneled frieze. A plain corner block appears above the center band and at each corner. The east parlor, now a dining room, has a mantel with similar proportions but quite different elements. Engaged vernacular colonnettes flank the fire opening and terminate in small end blocks beneath a thick shelf. A narrow tapered block bisects the flat-paneled frieze. The door and window frames in this room feature rather flat symmetrical moldings and plain corner blocks. The rear room of the ell, said to have been the dining room, contains a mantel that is a simplified version of that in the west parlor, and the rest of the finish resembles that in the east parlor. The steep, narrow open-string stair rises in one flight along the rear wall of the stair hall, beginning with winders and ascending from east to west. Slender balusters, square in section, and a plain newel, also square in section, support a molded rail. The lower border of the stringer is symmetrically molded. A short door with two long raised panels gives access to a small closet beneath the stair. The second floor follows the same plan as the first except that the front hall has been altered somewhat and includes a bathroom. A very simple chair rail and baseboard are present, and the doors and windows have symmetrical moldings with plain corner blocks. The overall design of the mantels is like that of the ell room below. The most interesting feature of the second floor rooms is the survival of original wood-graining and marbleizing. In the west chamber, the mantel has extremely fine wood-graining, which is repeated on the soffits and reveals of the doors. The east chamber and the ell room have mantels that have been treated with curious marbleizing achieved by spattering; the baseboard in the ell room is similarly treated. The doors leading from the stair hall retain the handsome wood-graining.
The small frame office and schoolhouse are identical, and both retain their step-shoulder chimneys and mantels similar to those in the main building. They are finished inside with plastered walls; on the schoolhouse walls are a number of signatures and inscriptions, some dated as early as the mid-nineteenth century. The smokehouse and carriage house are simple frame structures.
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The Mitchell House was built by William W. Mitchell, probably around the time of his marriage to Martha C. Williford in 1832. Family tradition has it that Mitchell selected the timber and supervised the building, but left the finishing of the house to a slave. The first Mrs. Mitchell died soon after their marriage, and Mitchell was subsequently married twice.
That his offspring included four daughters [actually there were at least seven from all marriages--S.M.W.] partly serves to explain his interest in establishing a good school in the area. A devout Baptist and a believer in education, Mitchell was one of a small group of men who met in 1848 and agreed to found Chowan Female Institute. He was serving as the second chairman of its board of trustees when the board decided in 1863 to take over the operation of the school from William Hooper. Hooper, son of one of North Carolina's signers of the Declaration of Independence, was a distinguished educator and scholar, but his anti- secessionist views were apparently unacceptable to the board during this time of war. In 1868 Mitchell sustained the school during a financial crisis when he acted as chairman of a group of stockholders who purchased it. The school has since become Chowan College, a respected regional institution.
When William Mitchell died in 1897 the home tract of 1117 acres was divided among four of his children with Bettie Mitchell Vann, the youngest daughter, being allotted 200 acres and the dwelling house. [More recently, the Mitchell House passed to Edith Winborne Gordon, Bettie’s granddaughter. Edith and her husband, Dudley, spent many years carefully restoring the house. Since Edith’s death in the early 1980s, Dudley, now in his 80s, has continued to live in the house and maintain the property.]
The William Mitchell House is of local historical importance as the home of one of the founders of Chowan College. It is a well-preserved example of a transitional Federal-Greek Revival farmhouse, retaining the traditional decorative elements that were fashionable. The survival of such interior features as the locks and handsome wood-graining, and of the numerous early outbuildings, enhances the significance of the Mitchell House.MAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: Hertford County Records, in both Register of Deeds in Winton and at the State Dept. of Archives and History; McKnight and Creech, "A History of Chowan College", Murfreesboro, 1964; Winborne, "The Colonial and State Political History of Hertford Co., N.C." Raleigh, 1906; Parker, comp., "The Ahoskie Era of Hertford County", Ahoskie, 1939.
FORM PREPARED BY Survey and Planning Unit Staff, State Dept. of Archives and History, 109 East Jones St., Raleigh NC, 18 July 1972

   "Mr. Mitchell . . .  was chairman of the County Court from June 1861 - 1866 and had served the county as one of its leading justices for twenty-five years.  He was a man of stern and positive character and a strong member in his church and denomination from early manhood to his death, and a great advocate of education. . . .He was one of the prime movers in the building and establishing of the Chowan Baptist Female Institute and contributed largely to the expense and was chairman of its board of trustees for a number of years until his health became so enfeebled that he declined further election.  During his active life he was always ready to respond to its needs and faithfully attended all meetings of the trustees and his face was familiar on the rostrum at the annual commencement exercises. 
He married the sister of the late Rev. Jno. Mitchell who was so well known throughout North Carolina. She was the daughter of James S Mitchell, the legislator from Bertie in 1842." Winborne's History of Hertford County.

Children of William W Mitchell and Martha E Mitchell:
1. Nancy Emily Mitchell 21 Nov 1836 - 5 Jan 1837
2. Mary Jane Mitchell 16 Oct 1838 - 1919
      married James Lawrence Mitchell  died ca 1878 of Winton 
3. Elizabeth Winiford Mitchell 10 May 1841 - 26 July 1844
4. Sarah Martha "Sallie" Mitchell 1 May 1842 - 21 July 1911
     married Lt. William P Taylor ca 1843 - 
                son of Maj. Hillery Taylor of Mill Neck & wife Nancy E. 
       a. A S Taylor ca 1866 - son
     b. E. Taylor ca 1871 - daughter
     c. son Taylor ca 1880 -

Children of William W Mitchell and Mary E W Mitchell:
 1.  James Saunders Mitchell 5 Aug 1847 - 19 July 1918
               educated at Wake Forest
      married ca 1885 Hattie V Owens

 
1899 "Gray Gables" in Winton NC
home of James S Mitchell, retail grocer

      a. Adrian S Mitchell Oct 1886 -
      b. Elsie Mitchell June 1890 - 
      c. Ina Mitchell July 1895 -
      d. Thelma Mitchell March 1898 -
 2. John Pipkin Mitchell 15 Feb 1849 - 4 July 1930  
                retail merchant - banker -Winton, NC
     married Mary Jordan Garriss ca 1859 -
       a. James Rossius Mitchell
 3. Almira Hassletine Mitchell 14 Aug 1850 - May 1871
 4.  Pauline Agnes Mitchell 27 Jan 1852 - 13 Nov 1932 Winton, NC1900 census: Pauline states she has had 10 children, 3 of which are living

Pauline A Mitchell

      married ca 1873 William Dorsey Holloman 11 Mar 1828 - 1879
        a. Susan N Holloman ca 1876 - dy
        b. John M Holloman ca 1877 - 1880/1900
        c. William D Holloman ca 1878 - 1880/1900
      married 2nd ca 1883 Clingman Webster Mitchell
                                                      16 Aug 1860 - 20 Jun 1921
            of Aulander Businessman, politician  Grad. Wake Forest 1881
        a. Herbert Hawthorne Mitchell 1 Jan 1884 - 4 Feb 1912 
                                    1904 Wake Forest
           b. Carrie Vivian Mitchell Mar 1885 - 25 Dec 1950 
                     grad Chowan
              married Dr. John L Pritchard
               i. Elizabeth 1914 - ca 1931 
        c. Clingman Webster Mitchell Jr 9 Mar 1894 - 6 Apr 1979
                      BA Wake Forest     
             married 17 Nov 1915, Mackey’s, NC  Mary Alma Elliott 12 Apr 1894 - 6 Apr 1979
                         BA Meredith                             
              i. Margaret Anita Mitchell 1917-1973
             ii. Clingman Webster "Bill" Mitchell  1925-
 5.  Bettie Elva Mitchell 5 Oct 1853 - 14 Jan 1939

   
Bettie and TJ Vann

      married 12 Dec 1874 Thomas J Vann   
                  son of Jesse Vann 
 6. William Judson Mitchell 15 Oct 1857  - 23 Jan 1934 
              edu. Wake Forest - farmer -  near Ahoskie
      married 25 Nov 1880 Sallie Riddick Vann  5 June 1863 -
                  daughter of John Arline Vann 
       a. Almira [Myra] Vann Mitchell   single person
       b. William Arline Mitchell
            married Maggie Sue Woolfley
             i. only child died in infancy
       c. Horace Carlton Mitchell 1884 -
          married 1908 Bessie Jones Pruden 21 Nov 1887 -
             i. Horace Pruden Mitchell
            ii. Lewis Judson Mitchell
                 married Juanita Vick
           iii. Nancy Mitchell
       d. Lillian Clyde Mitchell
           married 1st William Wallace Ecklin
           i. Lillian Vann Ecklin
               married Warren Gaskins
                      1. Lillian Vann Gaskins
                      2. Warren C Gaskins Jr.
           ii. Wallace Judson Ecklin
           iii. Mary Emily Ecklin
                married John Wesley Sowers
                     1. John Wesley Sowers Jr.
           iv. Edward Corwin Ecklin
          married 2nd W L Daniel Dec 1889 -
       e. Martha Winifred Mitchell    dec.
       f. Kleber Watson Mitchell       dec. 
       g. Robert Bruce Mitchell
           married Gladys Ashburn
       h. Julian Jarvis Mitchell
7. Charles Emerson Mitchell 1 Mar 1859 - bef 1870

Ref: 1860 Census, 1870 census,  1880 census
Edith Gordon (d. 1982), granddaughter of Bettie Mitchell Vann, whose source was the family Bible [confirmed by Shirley Wersinger during a visit to the house and cemetery in 2000]  Entry in Dictionary of NC Biography
Winborne's History of Hertford County

Under William Watson Mitchell, you
have child number 6 William Judson Mitchell.  His
daughter Lillian Clyde married Eiklin and had several
children.  Then it says married second W.L. Daniel.
Would this be the Lewis Daniel born in the 1880s?
Also, Lillian brother Horace Carlton Mitchell married
Bessie Pruden.  This is Bessie Jones Pruden, daughter
of Charles Norfleet Pruden and Nancy Walton Jones.