Mitchell, Thomas W

Mitchell, Thomas W.

a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who labored as a missionary among the North American Indians, was born in Indiana April 15, 1816. His father removed to East Tennessee when Thomas was but two years old. Here he was educated. He professed religion in his eleventh year; joined the Methodist Episcopal Church; removed to Missouri, with his parents, in 1835; was licensed to preach in 18S7; admitted into the Missouri Conference the same year, and filled the following appointments: New Madrid Circuit in 1837, and Weberville Circuit in 1838. In 1840 he was located; removed to the Cherokee Nation in 1845, and taught a public school until 1846, when he was readmitted into the Indian Mission Conference. From that time to 1851 he filled different appointments, and was then appointed to preside. over the Creek District. In 1855 he was appointed superintendent of Fort Coffee and New Hope seminaries, and continued until 1858. Then he was transferred to the St. Louis Conference, where he labored until 1862. During the war-storm he retreated to Texas, and, after the opening of brighter days, in 1866 he entered the Trinity Conference, where he labored until 1869, when he took a superannuated relation. In 1871 he obtained a transfer and removed to the Indian Mission Conference, and was appointed presiding elder of the Creek District. He died in the midst of his work, March 17, 1872, in Ocmulgee, Creek Nation. See Minutes of Conferences, 1872, page 745.