David Dawson Mitchell (1806 - 1861)

Born 31 Jul 1806 in Louisa County, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 23 May 1861 at age 54 in St. Louis Missouri

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Biography

DD Mitchell was born in Louisa County, VA and later lived in KY. He was possibly in the military or fur trade at Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) WI in the 1820's. He became a clerk for the American Fur Company in St. Louis in 1828. He built Fort McKenzie MT in 1832. Accompanied Prince Maximilian of Coblenz (now Germany) and Karl Bodmer on their trip up the Missouri River from Fort Union to Fort McKenzie in 1833. Another fur trading post, Fort Mitchell, was named after him in 1833. He was Superintendent of Indian Affairs for much of the period 1841 to 1853. During the Mexican War he was the Lt. Col. of the Second Missouri volunteers, commanded by Col. Sterling Price. When Price and Col. Alexander Doniphan became involved in Indian troubles, Mitchell was ordered to lead the advance towards Chihuahau. The troops lacked supplies or funds, so Mitchell then gallantly escorted Senora Tules, the gambling queen of Santa Fe, to a fandago, and so flattered her with his attention that she lent cash to move the troops. In 1855 he promoted the Missouri and California overland mail and transportation company and became its president. He supplied mules for the army in the Mormon war of 1858 and escorted survivors of the Mountain Meadow massacre back to Arkansas in 1859.

Sources

Doña Tules: Santa Fe's Courtesan and Gambler by Mary Jean Straw Cook

Metis Families - A Genealogical Compendium by Gail Morin

Fort Union and the Upper Missouri Fur Trade by Barton Barbour

Karl Bodmer’s Studio Art by W. Raymond Wood, Joseph C. Porter, and David Hunt, University of Illinois Press, 2002 (2007 paperback)

'This WICKED Family': A Biography of the DESCHAMPS FAMILY of Fort Union: Their Feuds, Fights, and Violent Demise Montana; The Magazine of Western History; January 1, 2004

The Mountain Men and the fur Trade in the Far West (Mattison article on Mitchell)

David Dawson Mitchell: Virginian on the Wild Missouri in Magazine of Montana 27:2-15

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maggie727/our%20big%20family%20tree/411.htm