Background

Elisha Mitchell was born on August 19, 1793, in Washington, Connecticut, United States, to the family of Abner Mitchell, a farmer with substantial property, and Phoebe Eliot. His father was descended from Matthew Mitchell who came to Massachusetts from Yorkshire in 1635 and two years later settled at Wethersfield, Connecticut; his mother was a grand-daughter of the Reverend Jared Eliot, a man distinguished in his day for the successful pursuit of knowledge in many branches of science and a direct descendant of John Eliot, the “apostle to the Indians,” who translated the Bible into Algonkian. A precocious child, he learned to read at an early age.

Education

In boyhood, Mitchell showed an insatiable desire for knowledge and a special interest in objective science, which were encouraged by his schoolmaster, the Reverend Azel Backus, then head of a classical school in Litchfield County. Mitchell graduated from Yale at the head of his class in 1813. Mitchell studied for a short time at Andover Theological Seminary and on December 30, 1817, received a license to preach.

Career

After leaving Yale, Mitchell taught first at Union Hall Academy, conducted by Dr. Lewis E. A. Eigenbrodt in Jamaica, Long Island, and then served as principal of Union Academy in New London, Connecticut. In 1816 he returned to Yale as a tutor.

In January 1818 Mitchell arrived in Chapel Hill to take up his duties as a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. At the same time his former classmate at Yale, Denison Olmsted, was appointed professor of chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. When Olmsted returned to Yale in 1825, Mitchell was chosen to take his place; he taught chemistry, geology, and mineralogy at the university for the next thirty-two years. He also took over and completed the geological survey of North Carolina that Olmsted had begun.

In 1821 Mitchell was ordained by the Presbytery of Orange in Hillsborough; he continued to combine preaching with his education and scientific interests for the remainder of his life.

At Chapel Hill, Mitchell's students apparently found him a witty and challenging lecturer and enjoyed his courses. In addition to his teaching, he officiated at chapel services, both on weeknights and on Sundays; served as bursar and accountant for the university; and, after 1835, acted in place of President David L. Swain when Swain was away from Chapel Hill. As bursar, Mitchell was in charge of grounds and buildings belonging to the university and worked to increase the variety of flowers, shrubs, and trees on the campus. He also complained that he had more than his share of responsibility for discipline because he lived closer to the college buildings than other members of the faculty.

Mitchell is best known for his measurement of the Black Mountain in the Blue Ridge and his claim that one of its peaks was the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. He first noted in 1828, in the diary he kept while working on the geological survey, that he believed the Black Mountain to be the highest peak in the area. In 1835 and again in 1838 he measured the mountain, showing the highest peak to be higher than Mount Washington in the New Hampshire's White Mountains. In 1844 he returned with improved instruments and measured the highest peak at 6,708 feet, 250 feet higher than Mount Washington. By that time local people were referring to the peak as Mount Mitchell. However, Mitchell's claim was challenged in 1855, when Senator Thomas Clingman, arguing that Mitchell had measured the wrong peak, insisted that the one he had climbed and measured stood at 6,941 feet. As a result of the ensuing controversy, Mitchell returned to the Black Mountain in 1857 in a final attempt to prove Clingman wrong and justify his own previous measurements. On 27 June, leaving his son and guides, he started out alone, was caught in a thunderstorm, and apparently fell down a waterfall and drowned in the pool below.

Achievements

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  Perhaps Mitchell's best work was that printed privately for the use of his student's manuals of natural history, botany, zoology, and mineralogy. His chief claim to distinction, however, is that he was the first to measure the height of the mountain now called Mitchell's Peak or Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the United States east of the Rockies. The University of Alabama awarded him an honorary doctor of divinity degree in 1838, and he was a corresponding member of the Boston Society of Natural History. In 1881-1882 the United States Geological Survey upheld Mitchell's measurement of the highest peak on the Black Mountain and officially named it Mount Mitchell. In 1883 the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society was founded in his memory at The University of North Carolina.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Memoir of the Rev. Elisha Mitchell, D.D., Late Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy & Geology in the University of North Carolina 1828
  • Diary of a Geological Tour by Dr. Elisha Mitchell in 1827 and 1828, With Introduction and Notes by Dr. Kemp P Battle, LLD 1905

Religion

Mitchell's theological views were clearly expressed in 1825 in a controversy with John Stark Ravenscroft, first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, in which he supported Calvinist doctrine, arguing that Scripture was the only source of religious truth and rejecting the use of tradition as an aid to religious interpretation.

Politics

Mitchell's journal indicates his distaste for Jacksonian democracy, and in North Carolina he supported the efforts of those who were determined to overcome the Rip Van Winkle image the state had acquired and to promote material progress.

Views

Mitchell expressed definite opinions on the issues of his day. In 1834 he urged North Carolinians to support the establishment by the state of a tax-supported system of common schools, not only because he believed that educated citizens were essential to the improvement of society, but also because such schools would provide jobs for women as teachers. Mitchell's interest in the education of women is also evident from the classical education he prescribed for his own daughters.

Having been appointed by Governor William A. Graham to survey a turnpike westward from Raleigh to Buncombe County, Mitchell reported in 1846 that such a turnpike was necessary to encourage trade, increase travel, and connect the eastern and western sections of the state. He also supported the temperance movement and the organization of temperance societies as a means of achieving social progress. His belief in the importance of material improvement was also evident in his descriptions of the mountain regions in western North Carolina, which he visited while working both on the geological survey and on his own research. He deplored the isolation in which mountain people led their lives, which, he argued, led to male laziness, female degradation, and economic stagnation. He looked forward to the day when improved transportation, education, and the development of villages and towns would bring the benefits of civilization to the area.

On the question of slavery, he supported the southern point of view. After coming to Chapel Hill, he acquired slaves himself and, in 1848, preached a sermon arguing that slavery was a system of property holding under God's law and as such was no worse than any other form of property ownership.

Personality

Mitchell was marked by the dignity of his bearing, the originality of the views he set forth, the humor with which he enlivened his arguments, and the evident intimacy of his acquaintance with great English authors." He also had a commanding presence, great bodily vigor, and liberal philanthropy. He possessed a nearly photographic memory.

Connections

In 1819 Mitchell married Maria Sybil North, the educated daughter of a physician Dr. Elisha North, whom he had met when he was teaching at Union Academy in 1815. They had seven children: Mary Phoebe, Ellen Hannah, Margaret Eliot, Matthew Henry (died in infancy), Eliza North, Charles Andrews, and Henry Eliot (died in infancy). All his children received an excellent education, much of it imparted at home by their parents.

Father:

Abner Mitchell

Mother:

Phebe Eliot Mitchell

Brother:

Matthew Eliot Mitchell

Wife:

Maria Sybil North Mitchell

Daughter:

Mary Phoebe Mitchell Ashe

Daughter:

Margaret Eliot Mitchell

Daughter:

Ellen Hannah Mitchell Summerell

Daughter:

Eliza North Mitchell Grant

Son:

Matthew Henry Mitchell

Son:

Henry Eliot Mitchell

Son:

Charles Andrews Mitchell

ancestor:

John Eliot

teacher:

Azel Backus

References

• Mount Mitchell
  2015
• Chapel Hill and Elisha Mitchell, the Botanist
  1996
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Volumes 9 & 10
  1981