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Mitchell prepared for college in private schools and the Boston public schools, where
his father resided while he held the office of State auditor. Mitchell's scholarship won for
him the Franklin medal. He purposed in going to college to make the ministry his life
profession. But at his father's request, upon receiving the latter's consent to go to college,
our classmate left the choice of profession open, and by the close of his college course he
had decided to study medicine, and made choice of the homeopathic school. While in
college, Mitchell joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. He likewise was a member of the
'Technian Literary Society, and a member of its governing council, 1862-63; had a part in
the Adelphic Union public debate, October, 1862; received an appointment in the Junior
exhibition, April, 1862; was a member of the committee of arrangements for Class Day
exercises, and received a Commencement appointment.
As there were no homeopathic medical schools of high grade forty years ago,
Mitchell's father insisted that his son should receive his medical training in an established
institution of the old school. Accordingly he took the course of the Bellevue Medical
College, New York City. Immediately after, in 1865, our classmate settled in Chicago, and
spent his life in that city. He died at his residence on Prairie Avenue, November 4, 1898.
He married, February 28, 1867, Miss Helen S. Leeds, daughter of Joseph and
Arethusa Clapp Leeds, of Philadelphia. They have had five children.
1. Helen, born August 3, 1868; married to James Todd, of Chicago, assistant State's
attorney, June 4, 1894. Their children are: James Todd, born May 15, 1895, and Mitchell
Todd, born April 27, 1897.
2. Joseph, born November 8, 1869; died August 29, 1870.
3. Frederick, born June 7, 1871; died December 6, 1873.
4. Sidney, born February 12, 1876.
5. Leeds, born April 26, 1877.
Leeds prepared for Yale University at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts,
1894-96, and was graduated from Sheffield Scientific College, Yale University, after a three
years' course, in 1899. Sidney and Leeds are bankers and brokers in their native city,
Chicago, and are unmarried.
Within six months after entering upon his profession in Chicago, our classmate was
offered, and he accepted, the position of lecturer on surgical and pathological anatomy in
Hahnemann Medical College, in Chicago. One year later he was elected to the chair of
physiology in the same institution, and after three years he was promoted to the chair of
theory and practice of medicine, being then only thirty-one years old, and was one of the
youngest men to occupy such an honorable and responsible position. In 1873, he became
dean of the medical college faculty.
In 1876, Dr. Mitchell withdrew from Hahnemann College, and became a leading
spirit in the organization of the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. He was chosen
president of this new institution, and also professor of clinics and diseases of the chest. He
held these positions in this school of medical science twenty-two years, until his death.
One who was well acquainted with our classmate's record in the metropolis of the
West writes of his work with conciseness and fine discrimination:
"Being prominently connected with the two largest homeopathic schools in the West
throughout a period of more than thirty years, he was conceded to be one of the men who
shaped the theories of that branch of the profession, and one to whom homeopathy owes
to a great extent its spread.
"Under his able direction and supervision, the college has grown to be one of the
leading institutions of medical instruction in the United States; and his best efforts were
devoted during the better part of his life solely to building up the college.
"To Dr. Mitchell was also due the success of the medical congress during the
Columbian Exposition, one of the world's congress auxiliary departments. He was intrusted
with the preparation of that congress, and the result was the most notable assemblage of
homeopathic physicians that ever was held. His address to the gathering was pronounced
one of the ablest of the many famous speeches delivered in the World's Fair congresses."
Dr. Mitchell published articles numerously in the magazines and scientific journals,
which were always closely followed by all students of homeopathy. He was an active
member of the Illinois State and the Chicago Homeopathic Societies, and was honored in
being elected president of the American Institute of Homeopathy. He presided at its annual
meeting in Buffalo, New York, in 1897.
Source:
Class of Sixty-Three Williams College Fortieth Year Report, by
the Class Historian, Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, 1903
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