Taking up the Mitchell branch. I was naturally led back to the progenitor of our name, who landed, an emigrant from Europe, on our American shore. Ten years ago, David Mitchell was but a mere name to me, and, as to his noble wife, her name and character were wholly unknown. Really I thought our first American ancestors were quite an insignificant and inferior sort of a couple since I had learned so little respecting them. But when some earnest research revealed the cheering- fact, that they were what the following chapters show them to have been, my opinion began to rise in their favor until I now think it may be safely said, that considering their times, opportunities, privations and hardship;. scarcely a descendant of theirs has come up to the size of either David or Margaret in the line of intelligence, braver}-, perseverance and piety.
