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Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",  published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.


     HENRY MITCHELL, M. D., is well known all over Douglas county and rightly, too, for he has done a good work here and is to-day enjoying the competence which his labors and wisdom have provided.  He owns a beautiful home in Wilsoncreek, the same being tastily furnished and surrounded with handsome grounds.  The doctor takes especial pride in some excellent fruit trees which he has raised and which are first class, while Mrs. Mitchell has some of the finest Plymouth Rock chickens to be found in this section of the country.  They are happy people and have won hosts of friends from all parts of the country.
     Henry Mitchell was born in Obion county, Tennessee, on March 29, 1849, the son of Rev. William R. and Mehala (Thompson) Mitchell, natives of North Carolina.  The father was a minister of the Primitive Baptist denomination.  Henry was trained in the district schools of Linn and Macon counties, Missouri, whither his father had removed, and then completed a course in Kirksville Normal school.  At the age of twenty-three, he began the study of medicine under the tuition of Dr. S. R. Cox, of New Boston, Missouri, and there continued steadily for six years, taking an extended course of reading.  Then he matriculated in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Keokuk, Iowa, graduating in the class of 1878.  He immediately returned to New Boston, Missouri, and took up his profession.  He was favored with a large practice, owing to his skill and success, but the ordeal of attending to such an extensive labor wore on his health and he broke down.  Being assured that he must give up his medical labors, he determined to come west and take up the stock business.  Accordingly, he made his way to Washington and chose a place in Douglas county for the start.  Ritzville, forty-five miles away, was his nearest post office, then Coulee City was established in 1890, and finally, in 1894, an office was located at Wilsoncreek.  The doctor had discarded his medicine case, but as the people became aware that a skillful physician and surgeon was in their midst he had calls from every quarter and as they came more and more, as the country settled, he was obliged to respond to the suffering sick.  However, the salubrious and health giving climate had wiped out his sickness and given him a stock of vitality sufficient to again take up the practice, and so Dr. Mitchell could not say no.  Accordingly, he was obliged to relax his grasp of the stock business and is now entirely engaged in the medical work.  His success is what has won for him a marked favor among the people and Dr. Mitchell has the confidence and esteem of all who know him.  His long and careful study coupled with an adaptiblity for this line of investigation and the doctor's care to keep abreast of the progressing science of medicine, together with his conscientiousness in handling every case to the best advantage combine to give the success which is so envied.
     Dr. Mitchell has two brothers and two sisters, John F., Thomas C., Mrs. Nancy A. Todd, and Mrs. Mary E. Barbee.  His marriage occurred in Linn county, Missouri, in 1879, March 18, when Miss Julia M. Stone became his bride.  Her parents, Granville H. and Mary E. (Bailey) Stone, were natives of Virginia and Missouri, respectively.  She was born in Linn county, Missouri, on January 27, 1861.  Four children have been born to them, but all died in infancy.  They adopted one son, Joseph Hensley Mitchell, who is now living in Leavenworth, Washington.  The doctor is a member of the M. W. A., the Foresters and the Royal Neighbors.  He is medical examiner for all the old line insurance companies which do business in his section and is also examiner for the fraternal societies to which he belongs.
 
 

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