"COUNTIES OF MORGAN, MONROE & BROWN, INDIANA. HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL."
CHARLES BLANCHARD, EDITOR. CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO. PUBLISHERS. 1884.
F. A. BATTEY. F. W. TEPPLE
BROWN TOWNSHIP AND MOORESVILLE, MORGAN COUNTY, INDIANA
PAGE 230
GILES BEFORD MITCHELL, M.D. (deceased), was born in Bartholomew County,
Ind., November 17, 1822. His parents, Giles and Mary (Moore) Mitchell,
natives of Virginia and Kentucky respectively, were married in Kentucky in
1807, and emigrated to Indiana in 1810, locating in Charleston, Clarke
County, when the only buildings there were a block-house and a log fort. In
1820, they removed into Bartholomew County, and in 1833 settled in
Martinsville, Morgan County, where Giles Beford, who was the fourth of a
family of six children, acquired the rudiments of an English education. In
about 1837, he began the study of medicine with Dr. Barnard, of
Martinsville, and at the end of one year entered the Ohio Medical College at
Cincinnati, from which institution he subsequently graduated as M.D. He
practiced medicine a few years in Martinsville, and from 1847 to 1857 in
Mooresville, when he returned to Martinsville and embarked in the mercantile
business. This he followed about three years, but growing dissatisfied sold
out and returned to Mooresville, where he resumed his practice which he
continued up to within a few days of his death, which occurred October 6,
1878. He was a man of much more than ordinary mental caliber, and his
success through life was due to his own industry, energy, and indomitable
perseverance in the pursuit of knowledge. He was married, November 30,
1847, at Mooresville, to Sarah Reagan, daughter of Reason Reagan, an early
settler of Morgan County, and had born to him six children--Mary E., Laura
A. (deceased), John (deceased), Ida E. (deceased), Sarah V. (deceased), Emma
G., and William L. At his death, Dr. M. had been many years a consistent
member of the M. E. Church, and a Mason in high standing. He was one of the
organizers of the Farmers' Bank of Mooresville, and for several years its
President. In politics, he was an unswerving Democrat, and was at one time
his party's candidate for Representative in the State Legislature. He
esteemed his profession above all other employments in which he was engaged,
and devoted himself to the bank only because the accumulation of his toil
required it. His aim was to be a successful practitioner, and he allowed
nothing to conflict with his darling purpose. His perceptions were very
keen, and in the treatment of acute diseases he was very successful. Much
of his extensive practice was due to the promptness of this calls. He
attended strictly to work, and was careful not to neglect any of his
patients. He took hold with a firm hand, and the result was not doubtful.
His successful career is a brilliant example of what can be accomplished by
earnest devotion to present duty. He started with nothing, having to sign a
note for borrowed money with which to prosecute his studies in the medical
college. As a business man, he was exact in has habits and prided himself
on system in all that belonged to his affairs. When he received certain
premonition of his approaching death, he arranged to settle his business,
that future embarrassments might be avoided. He believed in applying bank
principles to ordinary business affairs, and this system, no doubt, had much
to do with his success in temporal matters. He deserved great credit and
reaped a liberal harvest for his painstakings in departments of duty. He
left his family a handsome patrimony, which has been skillfully managed by
his surviving widow.
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