Sunday's Obituary: Captain C. F. Mitchell

Captain C. F. Mitchell

Greensburg, Pa., January 24.- Captain Chauncey F. Mitchell, Greensburg's oldest citizen, who on last Tuesday celebrated the ninety-third anniversary of his birth, died at 4 O'clock yesterday afternoon in a chair at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Wineman. Captain Mitchell had not been ill and his death was unexpected. Captain Mitchell was born in a log cabin in Greensburg, January 17, 1818 and except two years spent in the west and 30 years in Somerset, always had lived here. Printer, newspaperman, soldier, and adventurer, Captain Mitchell led a life full of activity. When a boy he took up the printer's trade in the office of Murcury News in Pittsburg, now the Post. The old Ben Franklin press was operated by hand. This was in 1831. In 1854 the young man had risen to the position of editor and established the Somerset Democrat in Somerset, Pa. which he edited until 1861. He then enlisted in Company A, Pennsylvania Reserves, and went to the front. He served for three years in the army and took part in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Seven Days' Battle in the Wilderness and others. The last battle he fought was at Gettysburg. He was also a "forty-niner" having left with a large number of Westmorelanders for the gold fields of the Pacific coast. Six grown children survive Captain Mitchell, one of whom is Walter Mitchell, cashier of the Mellon National Bank of Pittsburg.

The Pittsburgh Press- Jan 24 1911

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