WILLIAM IZOTT MITCHELL
William I. Mitchell, known to his family as Will, was born September 11, 1873, in Wabaunsee, KS, the third son of the ardent abolitionist, and leader of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony, Captain William E. Mitchell (1825-1903) and Mary Ann Chamberlain Mitchell (1836 or 37-1915). His siblings were Alexander C. (1869-1955), Henry Raymond (1872-1961), and a sister, Maude Josephine (1875-1957).
Young Will grew up on the Flint Hill prairies of the brand new Free State of Kansas. As a child he listened to his aunt Agnes tell stories about her and his father’s participation in the Kansas Underground Railroad. He later recounted these stories in his memoir and in a letter to historian Wilbur H. Siebert.
In 1884 he attended the 30th anniversary celebrations of the settlement of Kansas at Bismarck Grove in Lawrence. He remembered hearing his father and Doctor J. P. Root discuss a plot by Missourians to attack the Beecher Colony when it docked at Lexington on its way to Kansas in 1856.
Will attended the local one-room schools, had grand adventures with the other boys of Wabaunsee and got into his fair share of scrapes. He was obsessed with “modern” farm machinery and with trains, riding on the inaugural run of the Manhattan Alma and Burlingame Railway on July 5th 1880, when he was only six years old. He and his two older brothers were also avid and formidable baseball players, competing with teams from other small neighboring towns.
From a very young age Will was assigned lots of farm and home duties and, when he was 18, he was given sole responsibility for running the family “store” which was a combination of Santa Fe Railway Station, general store and post office. His first “real” jobs were on the railroad, progressing from loading freight to acting as station cashier in various towns in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Life wasn’t all work, however, as he was able to attend the Columbian Exposition (Chicago Worlds Fair) in 1893 where he spent all his time in the buildings housing new technology. During a “slow time” in 1896, Will undertook a trip from Wabaunsee to Buffalo, N.Y. and back on his beloved “wheel” (bicycle). He describes all the adventures of the trip in detail in his memoir. After his return to Wabaunsee, Will attended college for a year at Kansas State Agronomy College (now KSU) in nearby Manhattan, KS, before going back to work on the railroad.
In 1902, Will and his older brother H.R. were offered jobs at the New York Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo), which was just being established by their uncle, William T. Hornaday. (Hornaday was a noted zoologist, taxidermist, author, zoo director and founder of the American conservation movement.) Except for a two-year period when Will quit and tried a variety of other jobs in an attempt to earn more money for his growing family, he worked at the zoo until he retired in 1940.
Through his Uncle William Hornaday and Aunt Josephine Chamberlain Hornaday, Will met a lovely young red-haired lady who was working at the New York Botanical Garden, just across the street from the zoo. Palmyre Louise de Chateaudun Clarke had moved to New York after spending some years in Sweden where her mother was married to a member of the Swedish peerage. Will was smitten. He courted and won “fair lady’s hand” and they were married on Thanksgiving Day in 1904. Their marriage appeared to be one of true love and deep devotion, which lasted throughout their lives.
Over the years the Mitchells owned two different homes in New York City, one in the Bronx and then one in Yonkers near the zoo. Palmyre and their children, Marguerite Palmyre (Sallie) born 1906 and William Hamilton (Mike) born 1907, spent summers at their beloved summer cabin “Solbakken” in the forested hills of Montague Township, N.J. In spite of his love of all things mechanical, Will didn’t learn to drive until he bought his first car when he was 47 years old — a used Dodge Sedan for $750. The previous owner showed him the brake and the gas, and Will found himself driving it home through New York City! After that, the family began taking camping auto trips into New England to research family history and genealogy and visit old family and historical sites. They also made auto trips to Detroit to get new cars “at their source,” as well as train trips to California to visit Palmyre’s family and, in 1915, to attend the Pan American Fair in San Francisco.
As previously mentioned, Will retired from the New York Zoological Gardens in 1940, after 37 years of service there. In 1951, when he was 78 years old, he began writing his memoirs, a task which resulted in three fascinating volumes. He was not quite finished when he died in 1953 in Yonkers, N.Y.
His ashes were buried in the Wabaunsee Cemetery. In his will he left a portion of his parent’s farm to the Kansas State Historical Society to become a public park dedicated to his father, Captain William Mitchell, and members of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony. His will stipulated that the park be called “Mount Mitchell” presumably because in his mind ‘mount’ gave more stature to the site. The historical society was unable to develop the park he envisioned, but fortunately, in 2006, his descendants and local residents were able to make his wish a reality when the Mount Mitchell Prairie Guards established the Mount Mitchell Heritage Prairie Park on the property. Today it is a popular attraction known for its history and intact tallgrass prairie.