Hon. Elza Leon Mitchell. The interesting career of
Senator Mitchell as a leader in most of the important movements for
the development of Western Oklahoma was supplemented by his election
as president pro tempore of the Senate in the Fifth Legislature, a
position which he filled with distinction and with honor to the
democratic party, with which he has affiliated since coming of age.
The election was a reward for his services as senator since 1908. Out
of the long record of consistently beneficial work which Senator
Mitchell has performed in behalf of Oklahoma affairs may be mentioned
as a matter of recent interest his joint authorship of a measure
establishing a good roads system and his assistance in legislation
affecting rural school conditions. These were two of the most
important subjects disposed of by the Fifth Legislature.
Senator Mitchell
comes from Missouri, a state that has furnished many sterling
citizens to the new country of Oklahoma. He was born in Clinton
County, March 13, 1876, a son of George W. and Josephine (Harris)
Mitchell. His ancestry goes back in America to Revolutionary times,
when some of their forbears, of Irish descent, served in the army
under General Washington. Senator Mitchell’s maternal grandfather,
Solomon Harris, was a pioneer resident of Kentucky. George W.
Mitchell was a minister of the Christian Union Church, spent eight
years as president of the general council of that denomination, and a
similar time as president of the Christian Union University at
Edinburg, Missouri.
Senator Mitchell was
educated in the Missouri public schools, and finished his literary
training in the institution
at Edinburg of which his father was then president, graduating in
1899 with the degree Bachelor of Arts. While in college he was editor
of the Edinburg Light and Truth, a college publication. This
experience no doubt influenced him in his early choice of vocation,
for on leaving college he came to Oklahoma and established in 1902
the Canadian Valley Echo at Grand, noteworthy as the first newspaper
published in that section of the territory formerly known as Day
County. The Echo was merged with the Roger Mills Sentinel at
Cheyenne, Oklahoma, in 1907, and Senator Mitchell was owner and
editor of the Sentinel until 1911, when he retired from the newspaper
business.
He is a man of
varied talents and activities, has been successful as a newspaper
publisher, and is also a member of the Oklahoma bar, having been
admitted in the first class seeking admission after statehood in
1908. His most interesting services, however, have been as a public
leader.’ In 1902 he was the primary agent in organizing the first
democratic party movement in Day County, and in that year the county
gave a majority of 159 votes to Bill Cross, democratic nominee for
Congress, over Dennis Flynn, who had previously carried that county
without opposition. Senator Mitchell was the first chairman of the
Day County Democratic Central Committee. He served as city attorney
of Cheyenne, and his name is associated with a number of enterprises
that comprise the general history of development in that section of
the state. He is a director in the company of local men that financed
and built the Cheyenne Short Line, a railroad seven miles long
connecting Strong City and Cheyenne. This is one of the many
important industrial and promotion undertakings in which Senator
Mitchell has been a factor.
He was elected a
member of the Senate in 1908, and took his seat at the beginning of
the Legislature. In that Legislature he was chairman of the committee
on private corporations. His efforts during his first term, in the
Second Legislature, were principally in behalf of legislation
affecting agriculture. In the Third Legislature he was chairman of
the committee on revenue and taxation, and that position caused him
to concentrate his studies and efforts upon matters coming within the
purview of that committee. In the Fourth Legislature he was chairman
of a committee on code revision, and this committee superintended the
preparation and adoption of the Harris-Day Code, now the statute of
Oklahoma. In the Fifth Legislature, besides serving as president pro
tempore and ex-officio a member of all the senate committee?, he was
the joint author with Senator Austin of a measure proposing an
amendment to the constitution abolishing the County Court, and was
joint author with Senator McIntosh of a bill relating to libel that
was intended to prevent unfair statements in public speaking and
debate.
Senator Mitchell was
married at Roll, Oklahoma, May 1, 1904, to Miss Ethel Madden. She was
educated in the Christian Union College at Edinburg, Missouri, of
which her husband is an alumnus, was a teacher before her marriage,
and has been an active factor in social and club work in Cheyenne.
They are the parents of four children: Bryan, aged ten; Bernice, aged
eight; Ruth, aged five; and Norris, aged two. Senator Mitchell has
six brothers and three sisters: B. S. (“Cap&qrduo;) is editor of
the Monitor at Shattuck, Oklahoma; George is a contractor at
Excelsior Springs, Missouri; Overton is a real estate man at
Excelsior Springs; Hugh is a preacher in the Methodist Church, his
present station being at Lancaster, Missouri; E. B. is assistant
superintendent of the Colorado Southern Railway Company at Cheyenne,
Wyoming; R. A. is editor of the Roger Mills Sentinel at Cheyenne; Mrs. Daisy
Helmandollar is the wife of a farmer at Edinburg, Missouri; Mrs.
Robert Sanderson is the wife of a railroad station agent at Hardin,
Missouri; and Miss Iona lives with her parents at Excelsior Springs,
Missouri.
Senator Mitchell is
a member of the Christian Union Church, and in Lodge No. 133,
Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, at Cheyenne, has held the offices
of junior warden and senior deacon. He is also affiliated with the
Cheyenne Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and has passed all the chairs
in Cheyenne Lodge No. 235, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr.
Mitchell is a member of the Cheyenne Commercial Club and is president
of the Roger Mills County Bar Association.