TRAVIS MOORE MITCHELL is the second son and the fifth child in a family of twelve children, and was born February 13th, 1833. Elijah Mitchell, his father, was a native of North Carolina, but removed with his father to Kentucky when he was quite young. He married Jane Moore. He left Kentucky in 1830 and removed to Illinois, and stopped one year in Marion county where he made one crop, and then removed to Sangamon county, seven miles north of Springfield, where he remained until the next year, when he came to Macoupin county and purchased eighty acres of land. He afterwards entered two hundred and eight acres more. He lived here until his death, which occurred August 16th, 1877. After the death of his wife in 1843 he married Hannah Hollingsworth, by whom he had nine children. The latter wife is still a resident of the old homestead. Travis M. remained at home until he reached his twenty-first year when he left home, bought a yoke of oxen and went to work breaking prairie in order to earn money to pay for them. In the fall of 1856 he made his first purchase of land and has added to it until he now owns nearly five hundred acres in one body. On the 15th of April, 1858, he was married to Sarah Eliza Jackson. She is a native of Honey Point, in this county. Four children have been born to them. All are dead except a son, Frederick Elijah. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church. Mr. Mitchell is an old resident of Brushy Mound township. In politics he is a democrat and cast his first vote for James Buchanan in 1856.