William Elsey Connelley

“ John C. Mitchell was always a hard working man and while he did his best to contribute the comforts to his family, his children were reared in comparatively humble circumstances and became inured at an early age to hard work and some privations.
These were the early circumstances of Charles L. Mitchell's career. He grew up in Kenosha, and received his education in the public schools and at Kenosha College. There was an element of willingness and energy in his makeup which undoubtedly accounts for his success in life. He paid his own way both through school and college. ”

“ His earnings were the result of cutting lawns, caring for horses, washing buggies, and he also had the distinction of being one of the first two newsboys in Kenosha. From the age of fourteen he has depended upon his own exertions. When a boy he frequently drove horses for doctors, and from this experience he came to know every farmer in a radius of thirty miles around Kenosha. The physicians did much of their driving at night, and whenever they could employed young Mitchell. ”

“ Mitchell has deserved success because he has earned it. He was born at Kenosha, Wisconsin, February 12, 1873, a son of John C. and Sallie Ann (Connell) Mitchell. His father saw four years of active service in the Civil war and died in 1898, while the mother is still residing in Wisconsin. John C. Mitchell was a native of Scotland, being brought to America at the age of five years. The family spent five weeks on board the sailing vessel that brought them to the New World. The Mitchells took up a homestead in southwest Wisconsin, at what was then known as Southport, now Kenosha. ”