(G.S.I.) or 31 Oct 1877
(G.S.I.) VOLUNTEERED HIS LIFE FIGHTING FOREST FIRES
(Lone Mountain Cemetery)
Helen Helman's notes: JACOB ERNEST MITCHELL'S LETTER TO HIS MOTHER ALMEDA CORBIN MITCHELL TAYLOR Jacob (called Jake by his mother) Ernest Mitchell's (d.o.b. 31 Oct. 1877) last letter to his mother, Mrs. Almeda Taylor ,married to Nelson Taylor ( 1882) after her 1st husband, Joseph R. Mitchell died in 1881. Joseph Mitchell was Jake's father. Jake ran away from home after his sister Grace Elizabeth Mitchell at the age of 14 ran off and married Henry Franklin Osborn 28 April 1889 while living in KS. The last any one heard about Jake was from a niece of Almeda Taylor, Mrs. Opria(sp?) Schroeder. He was involved in a gunfight in which a man died and Jack was accused of the killing. He declared he was innocent and others said he was, too. In spite of this, Jake was sent to prison, somewhere in the West. While in prison he volunteered with other prisoner to help fight a forest fire. While fighting the fire he and his fellow prisons were surrounded by the fire and lost their lives. This letter is on tablet stationary 5" wide and 7 1/2 " long, written in pencil, on 5 sheets, with some writing on back of page 1. of the sheets. The letter has been transcribed just as Jake wrote it-without much punctuation and misspelled words. "Searchlight Nev May 4th---15 Mrs Almda Taylor Dear Mother I am located at Search light Nev. came here last Sept I have a gold mining claims may be worth thousands of dollars and may not be worth assesment work am also doing a little farming but this is a dry country and nothing will grow with out irrigation but have a litte watter and hope to raise a fair garden have spuds peas beans corn and cantaloups up had 2 in snow sunday but it rained and melted it allmost as fast as it fell do I guess over (On back of page 1 was written) Give love to Jim Oliver and Viola and let me know all the news J E Mitchell Search light Nev. Box d (Page 2) The fruit will be all right will have quite a lot of grapes pears apricots peachess a few chiries apples and engligh wall nuts but the trees are too young to bear much yet Say Mother go to the plum patch east of the house and get me a dozen roots of plums cut the tops down to one inch of roots trim the roots so to save room send me a few currants and goose berries 3 or four roots of treeof heaven have plenty of locust here send me a quart of milo maize (page 3) most of my work here is yet in the expeimental stage but have the watter to irigat a few acres by pumping some from well 120 ft deep which has 80 ft watter in it also have spring by a canon but will have to pipe the watter down however have 2000 ft pipe on hand and think it will be enough Well Mother I may sell out here most any time of course if I sell my mining property I will sell(?) or lease everything but send the things to me as soon as you can as I would like to get of planting here as the summers are long the coldest it got here last winter was 18 above Mr Bell came out here to day with the last load of pipe for the spring and will go back tomorrow as it is 22 miles to town I don't go in often and will be in about the (page 5) middle of month and would be glad to hear from you Trim of small feeder roots leaving only main tap root wrap green sage brush cotton batten or straw arond them tie firmly in 2 or more places keep wet untill ready to crate and send by parcle post or expr which ever is most convenient Will send a few pennies now and more when I can Please send me the roots mother as I sure want them Well I must close With love your son Jake Mitchell" Checked web this evening: Searchlight, NV is in Clark Co. about 50 miles South of Las Vagus, NV. Colorado River near. Very desert area. Was mining fever in the area in the 19th Century and Searchlight, NV was a booming town then became a ghost town as the ore supple dwindled .
Record for Jacob Ernest Mitchell/ Ancestry.com