How Black-Lives Mattered to Wesley Clair Mitchell’s Immediate Ancestors. Mid 19th Century

                  In preparing Wesley Clair Mitchell’s remarks on his empirical approach to economics, I became curious about his grand-aunt with whom he, as a precocious boy, delighted to dispute deep theological issues. Mitchell wrote (emphasis added):

Concerning the inclination you [John Maurice Clark] note to prefer concrete problems and methods to abstract ones, my hypothesis is that it got started, perhaps manifested itself would be more accurate, in childish theological discussions with my grand aunt. She was the best of Baptists, and knew exactly how the Lord had planned the world. God is love; he planned salvation; he ordained immersion; his immutable word left no doubt about the inevitable fate of those who did not walk in the path he had marked. Hell is no stain upon his honor, no inconsistency with love. — I adored the logic and thought my grand aunt flinched unworthily when she expressed hopes that some back-stairs method might be found of saving from everlasting flame the ninety and nine who are not properly baptized. But I also read the bible and began to cherish private opinions about the character of the potentate in Heaven. Also I observed that his followers on earth did not seem to get what was promised them here and now. I developed an impish delight in dressing up logical difficulties which my grand aunt could not dispose of. She always slipped back into the logical scheme, and blinked the facts in which I came to take a proprietary interest.

                  To find out more, I sought detail in the biography/autobiography written by Wesley Clair Mitchell’s wife, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Two Lives — The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself (New York, 1953). There I was able to harvest plenty of information about Wesley Clair Mitchell’s family and identify the grand-aunt in question, Beulah McClellan Seely, a.k.a. “Grandma Seely.” I even learned that Beulah had put her reminiscences into writing and had them privately printed as A Story of My Life (1901), 73 pages. As the link indicates, there even happens to be a digital copy of Beulah’s memoir (originally from the Oberlin College library) that one can download from the internet. So between Lucy Sprague Mitchell and Beulah McClellan Seely, we have Wesley Clair Mitchell’s maternal and paternal sides fairly well-covered. A few dates and places have been added or checked using information found at the ancestry.com website that I subscribe to.

                  What I found particularly interesting were two clear indicators of progressive racial views held by Wesley Clair Mitchell’s immediate ancestors:

• Wesley Clair’s father volunteered to serve as surgeon to the 4th United States Colored Infantry  for the last three years of the war because he believed it was not right to have different medical care for soldiers of color defending the Union in the Civil War.
• On his mother’s side we find activist abolitionists and direct participation in the Underground Railroad to smuggle escaped slaves to Canada.

But first a fun fact:

Naming and Nicknaming Mitchell

I always called my husband “Robin.” That needs a word of explanation. When he was born, his parents had his name “Wesley Clair” waiting for him — so his mother wrote me. “Wesley” was for his father, John Wesley Mitchell, but was never used for the boy, perhaps because it was used for his father. He was never called “Wesley” until he began to be known professionally and signed himself Wesley C. Mitchell. His family and early friends called him “Clair.” They still do — his two sisters and four brothers and all his California friends. It was a name chosen by his mother for her first son. In her first letter to me she explains her choice:

… I hope you will like Clair’s name. It meant to me purity and strength and infinite beauty and the very essence of God’s love — all of which we believe you will find embodied in the spirit we feel sure the eternal years will only render more dear to you.

But I didn’t like either of his names — “Wesley” had rather grim associations and “Clair” seemed oversweet. So, when we were in the California Sierra before we were married, and in public, according to the mores of the day, were still saying “Mr. Mitchell” and “Miss Sprague,” I gave him a private name — “Robin.”

Source: Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Two Lives — The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself (New York, 1953), p. xx.

The Paternal Side of the Family

Father: John Wesley Mitchell (b. 30 Dec 1837 in Avon, Maine; d. 12 Jan 1915, New Orleans, Louisiana).He had four siblings.

Grandparents (paternal):

John Wesley Mitchell. Born 19 Jan 1798 in Durham, Maine; died 26 Mar 1889 in Strong, Maine)
Lydia Spaulding (b. 29 May 1799 in Fairfield, Maine; d. 16 Nov 1889 in Strong, Maine)

John Wesley Mitchell’s Civil War Service

[John Wesley Mitchell] went through the Medical School of Maine — affiliated with Bowdoin College — and received his M.D. in 1863 — Civil War days. He was then twenty-five years old. On a visit to his home soon after this, his mother extracted a promise from him that he would not volunteer for war service. But when he was in Boston, he learned of the desperate need of doctors, took the army examinations and, according to his children, passed with the highest grade on record. He entered service as surgeon of the 21st Massachusetts Infantry. But when he found that the Negro troops were not receiving the same medical care as the white, he resigned his commission and requested that he be transferred to the 4th United States Colored Infantry, where he served for the last three years of the war.

Source: Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Two Lives — The Story of Wesley Clair Mitchell and Myself (New York, 1953), p. 9.

                  John Wesley Mitchell was married to Lucy Medora (Dora) McClellan who received his proposal in 1867 at her adopted parents’ home in Chicago. Lucy Sprague Mitchell notes “…she was not as impulsive as he” and she was a mere 19 years old at the time anyway. John Wesley left Chicago to go to the New York Medical College and then practiced medicine in Chicago and later Des Moines. According to Lucy Sprague Mitchell, John Wesley was married and divorced twice before re-proposing to Medora. His first marriage was with a woman he married while practicing medicine in Des Moines. The second woman was a redhead who took care of Dr. Mitchell “during one of his many illnesses”. But according to Lucy Sprague, who is vague about her sources here, John Wesley’s second wife wanted to become a stage actress. . Despite my amateur gumshoe genealogical search of the ancestry.com resources, I am unable to confirm either of John Wesley Mitchell’s two strikes in the mating game that were reported by his daughter-in-law, Lucy Sprague Mitchell.

                  John Wesley said, ‘All right, but I won’t be married to you.’” And so they divorced. It was at a chance meeting with Medora’s brother-in-law that John Wesley learned Medora was not yet married, he decided to try his luck again, and in May 1872 they were married in Mrs. Beulah McClellan Seely’s home

John Wesley Mitchell’s Obituary

JOHN WESLEY MITCHELL, son of John and Lydia (Spalding) Mitchell, was born 30 Dec. 1837 at Avon, Me. He received his early education in his native town and began the study of medicine after attaining his majority. He attended two courses of lectures of which the second was at the Medical School of Maine where he received his degree in 1863. He at once entered the service of his country as assistant surgeon of the 21st Massachusetts Infantry, but resigned his commission to become in September of that year, surgeon of the 4th United States Colored Infantry. This position he held throughout the war, being mustered out of service in May 1866. He received in March 1865 the rank of colonel by brevet for meritorious service. While before Petersburg, Va., he received an injury to his thigh from the fall of his horse, an injury from which he never fully recovered and which was a source of no little suffering throughout his life. On leaving the army he took special post-graduate courses in the New York Medical College and then settled in the practice of his profession at Chicago, Ill. He soon removed to Rushville, Schuyler County, where he had an extensive practice, too great for his physical strength. He then took up his residence in Decatur, Ill., where he remained till 1900. The closing years of his life were spent at New Orleans, La. Here he died of arteriosclerosis, 12 Jan. 1915.

Dr. Mitchell possessed unlimited ambition and great determination, yet the effects of the injury alluded to above seemed ever to shatter his hopes. There was granted him, however, a gentleness and sweetness of spirit superior to untoward circumstances. In purity of life and in brotherly affection to all men, he followed closely in the footsteps of the Great Physician.

Dr. Mitchell married in 1872 Lucy Medora, daughter of James and Eunice McClellan of Chicago, Ill., who survives him with their seven children, Prof. Wesley Clair Mitchell of Columbia University, New York City, Leonard McClellan Mitchell, a merchant of Chicago, Roy Purrington Mitchell and Lucius Sherman Mitchell, both of New Orleans, Dr. James Francis Mitchell of Berkeley, Cal., Beulah Mitchell, wife of the Chicago artist Walter Marshall Clute, and Eunice Mitchell, wife of Prof. D. N. Lehmer of the University of California.

Source: Bowdoin College Bulletin, Obituary Number (June, 1915), pp. 333-334.

The Maternal Side of the Family

The following chart provides an overview of Wesley Clair Mitchell’s immediate ancestors on his mother’s side to give a visual impression of how his grand-aunt fit into the family picture.

Mother: Lucy Medora (Dora) McClellan (b. 5 Mar 1847 in Illinois; d. 7 Sep 1922 in Berkeley, California)

Lucy Medora McClellan was adopted at age five by her Aunt Beulah following the death of her mother Eunice Clark Sherman McClellan in 1850. Medora’s father James McClellan and Beulah McClellan were brother and sister, having at least 7 siblings.

Thus Wesley Clair Mitchell’s mother was raised by her adoptive parents, Francis Tuthill Seely (b. 13 Apr 1820 in Orange County, NY; d. 25 May 1891 in Decatur, Illinois) and Beulah McClellan Seely (b. 26 Dec 1824 in New York; d. 16 Nov 1906). They had been married Feb. 17, 1843 but were unable to have children of their own.

About Beulah McClellan Seely

“She was a tall, impressive figure, a ‘handsome dresser,’ and carried herself with an authoritative air.’” According to Wesley Clair Mitchell’s wife, Lucy Sprague.

From Beulah’s reminiscences we learn that she and her husband first lived two months at his father’s home and then moved to a farm three miles from him. However, a cyclone came and blew their house down forcing them to move back to Father Seely’s house until the 1843 harvest was done. Next the young couple moved to her parents’ home to help care for her mother who had suffered a severe stroke. A fatal stroke followed that winter (1843-44). They lived the next five years in Bristol, a quarter of a mile from her father, and where her husband Francis Seely set up a shoemaking business.

….Several years later [ca 1849?] we became dissatisfied with our prospects in Bristol and moved to Chicago, where my brother James [Wesley Clark Mitchell’s grandfather] had just settled. He was interested in the first abolition paper published there, for which my husband did the presswork. These were the times when the “Underground Railway” was in full operation and our house was a station for fugitives. Dr. Seely, my husband’s father, near Bristol, was a prominent member of the organization and brought slaves to our house, where they could be smuggled onto the boats for Canada. This was soon after Lovejoy’s murder [1837] and excitement was great. I remember that in the case of one man who came to father Seely, a trial and sale were held and father bid the man off for a dollar and a half and sent him over the line.”

Source:Beula McClellan Seely, A Story of My Life (1901), 73 pages p. 37.

… my brother James lost his second wife, Eunice [d. 1850; note— James’ first wife was Eunice’s sister Edit who had died earlier], who left him with six children, the oldest ten years old, the youngest, Florence, only a few weeks. Soon after he gave Medora to me. She was not yet six years old and has always been the greatest comfort and blessing to me.

Source:  Ibid., pp. 40-41.

Image Source: 1907 portrait of Medora and John Wesley Mitchell and 1903 detail of Beulah Seeley are posted in the “Spencer/Forbes/Adkins/Lehmer” Family Tree at the ancestry.com genealogical website.