Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857

Elisha Mitchell was a native of Connecticut, student and tutor at Yale College, Presbyterian minister, and professor of geology and chemistry and bursar at the University of North Carolina, 1818-1857.

Elisha Mitchell (19 August 1793-27 June 1857) of Connecticut was a graduate of Yale who taught at Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y. and at New London, Conn., and was a tutor at Yale before becoming a professor at the University of North Carolina in January 1818. Before leaving Connecticut, he was licensed to preach by the Congregational Church, and, in 1821, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He married Maria Sybil North of New London, Conn., in November 1819.

At the University of North Carolina, Mitchell first taught mathematics and natural philosophy, but later shifted to chemistry, geology, and mineralogy. He continued the geological survey of North Carolina begun by Denison Olmstead and made botanical and geological excursions through all of North Carolina, publishing the results in pamphlets and periodicals. He measured the height of the mountain now known as Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi, but his claim to priority in the measurement of the peak was disputed by Thomas Lanier Clingman, who declared that he and not Mitchell had found the highest point in the range. To settle the controversy, Mitchell went again to the mountains in 1857, andm in the course of this activity, fell down a steep bank into a creek and was drowned. He was buried in Asheville, N.C., and later reinterred on Mount Mitchell.

Mitchell had four daughters: Ellen, who married Joseph John Summerell; Mary, who married Richard Ashe; Eliza, who married Richard Grant; and Margaret, who never married; and one son, Charles, who died in Mississippi without issue. The Summerells lived in Salisbury, N.C., where J.J. Summerell practiced medicine; the Ashes lived in California; and the Grants lived in Texas.