Mitchell, Robert B

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Iowa Research Online

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From Genealogy to History
The idea for “Get Ready for ’96” 
grew out of genealogy research I 
was doing on the Mitchells who 
lived throughout Decatur County, 
Iowa, in the mid-1890s. My great- 
great-grandfather, the Rev. George 
E. Mitchell, was a Methodist “ supply 
preacher” based for several years 
in Davis City. I was reading micro­
filmed Decatur County newspapers 
of the period to learn basic facts 
about my family’s history.
Family lore suggested that Ralph 
Mitchell (one of George’s children, 
and my great-grandfather) had 
worked for a brief time in the news­
paper business, but no one knew 
where or when. Imagine my sur­
prise and delight, then, when I found 
a brief item in the Decatur County 
Journal reporting on the purchase of 
the Davis City Rustler in 1895 by
Ralph Mitchell and a business partner.
The newspaper microfilm sud­
denly provided a window into the 
journalistic and political milieu in 
which my great-grandfather plied his 
trade. Even a casual glance at the 
newspapers showed that Ralph’s 
career as an editor came during an 
exciting period, with a high-stakes 
presidential election and accompa­
nying partisan rhetoric dominating 
the front pages of Decatur County’s 
newspapers.The desire to learn more 
about this particularly fascinating chap­
ter of my great-grandfather’s life led 
me to write the accompanying article.
Only one copy—the final 
edition—of the Rustler still exists, 
and there is no microfilm record of 
the paper, but it is still possible to 
draw some basic conclusions about 
the publication based on references
made in other county newspapers 
of the period. The Rustler seems to 
have supported the Republicans 
but was the secondary paper in 
Davis City, a town of 500, where it 
struggled with the Populist Davis 
City Advance for readers and influence.
Ralph’s career in the newspa­
per business did not last long. He 
married my great-grandmother, 
Mary Helen Davis, in September 
1897. Soon thereafter he swapped 
the press for the pulpit, leaving the 
newspaper business to follow in his 
father’s footsteps as a Methodist 
minister. Although his journalism 
career was brief, Ralph nonetheless 
played a role in the fascinating 
political and journalistic drama that 
unfolded in Decatur County during 
1896, even if he had only a bit part.
—Robert 8. Mitchell
Fall 2003 109


From Genealogy to History

Iowa Heritage Illustrated

https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1107&amp;context=ihi

From Genealogy to History

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