Col. Benjamin Mitchell

It is difficult to find information on Colonel Benjamin N. Mitchell, partially because of his early time frame in Washington and partially because he died only a few years after locating here. However, he did a lifetime of good in his few years of service.

Mitchell arrived from Loudoun County, Virginia in 1831 and first settled in our township's Wrenn's Grove area, near the current location of Washington Grade School.  It did not take him long to get involved in local government, and by 1833, he was found serving on a Tazewell County Grand Jury.  In the same year, he was appointed as one of the three trustees of the school in the northwest area of our settlement, along with William Heath and Richard B. McCorkle.

In August 1834, Mitchell was elected as Tazewell County representative to the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat, winning the election in a landslide with 272 votes over Isaac Baker's 47 votes and Jesse Dillon's 46. Mitchell served in the Senate for three terms until 1840.  He also served as Tazewell County Commissioner in 1834.

Mitchell worked as a Registrar of Claims, meaning he was paid to help people purchase the land they had settled on.  By securing the claim with the registrar, the settler had first rights to buy the land they had improved when it was sold by the government.  Most of the properties in Washington Township were first purchased in the 1830s.  Mitchell himself bought two properties.  He was the first owner of the property east of Union Cemetery on Nofsinger Road and the first owner of the property just south of Grace Bible Church.

With Benjamin Mitchell certainly working his way up the political ladder, an unexpected tragedy struck, and he died at his home in 1840.  He had been nominated for another term in the Senate in May for the 1840 election while still alive and must have died before the election.  Mitchell still received over 600 votes posthumously when the election occurred in August.  The winner of that election, Richard N. Cullom, another Washingtonian, was the father of future Illinois Governor Shelby Cullom.

Colonel Mitchell's final resting place is unknown.