General Notes

[coosa1.ged]
His birthday is 21 June. (See Lizzie's bible.) From her bible,
Gadsden, Ala., "Gadsden T....?, March 8, 1895 newspaper:
MITCHELL WINS After a Spirited Contest on Last Tuesday.
....Gadsden held her municipal election last Tuesday and to say that it
was hotly contested is only mildly expressing it.... Never before... has
there been so much enthusiasm.... For mayor the two most prominent and
influential men of Gadsden were pitted against each other. The whole
fight centered on the mayor, R.A. Mitchell, president of the Queen City
Bank, and M.L. Foster, superintendent of the Gadsden and Attalla Union
Railway Company, were at the head of the two tickets, and Mr. Mitchell
won by a majority of nine votes....
And from the kindly given notes of Meredith Clapper, 2001, we have, from
A History of Tallapoosa County by William Pressley Ingram, Birmingham,
AL, 1951 p 56:
"Colonel Reuben Alexander Mitchell was born at Dadeville, ALabama, June
22, 1853, the son of Dr. William Mandon Alexander Mitchell and Elmira
Sophia Jordan Mitchell. His father was a noted physician who was among
the first settlers in Dadeville. Reuben's mother died when he was twelve,
and his father died during the reconstruction period, leaving him with
the responsibilities of two younger brothers and a sister. Colonel
Mitchell received his early education at the Shepard School at
Graefenberg, near Dadeville, being taught by Dr. Jackson Joseph Shepard
and Samuel C. Oliver. At eighteen he had completed a classical course. He
taught school for two years, and worked for a cotton industry at
Columbus, Georgia, for a time. He was Postmaster at Opelika during Grover
Cleveland's first administration, and was married to Sarah Byrd Wood, of
Opelika. There was one son and two daughters.  He moved to Montgomery in
1888 and became General Manager of the Montgomery Terminal and Street
Railway Company the first commercial electric railway in the world. In
1890, he went to Gadsden, Alabama, as President of the Gadsden Land and
Improvement Company, and was also President of the Queen City Bank of
Gadsden for ten years. He served as Mayor of Gadsden for three years. He
was a civic leader and took a leading part in inducing Goodyear Tire and
Rubber Company to build a plant there. He operated a textile plant for
the owners in Alabama City for a number of years. (The Story of Alabama,
by Marie Bankhead Owens). He was a member of the Alabama State Democratic
Committee for twenty years. he was among the organizers of the Protective
Life Insurance Company in 1907, and was a director of the company at this
time of his death. He was a Methodist. Colonel Reuben Mitchell and his
brother, Sidney Z. Mitchell, were among the pioneers in the electric
industry in Alabama. They purchased properties at Decatur, Huntsville,
Talladega, Anniston, and elsewhere. These properties were later acquired
by James Mitchell (no relation) and became a key part of the Alabama
Power Company. Colonel R A Mitchell was a director and Vice-President of
Alabama Power Company until his death, January 10, 1937."