Mizell Family History Project

(b. 1776 Martin Co. North Carolina – d. Unk Wilkinson Co. Georgia)

Generation 6

Married: Unknown

Children:
William Mizzell (b. abt. 1798, d. Unk)
David Mizzell (b. abt. 1800, d. 1883 Sylacauga, Talladega County, Alabama)
Gliston W. Mizzell (b. abt. 1807, d. 1853 Coosa County Alabama)
Michael Mizzell (b. abt. 1808, d. Unk)

More about MARK MIZZELL

Born North Carolina, moved to Georgia

Mark Mizzell was born in Martin County, North Carolina around 1776, and moved to Duplin County, North Carolina as a young man. He married there and is recorded there in the 1800 and 1810 Census. He is listed there in the Tax Rolls for 1806. His children were all born in Duplin County, North Carolina.

In 1819, Mark Mizzell moved to Wilkinson County, Georgia, where he is found on both the Census for 1820 and the Tax Rolls for 1824. He was still living there in the 1830 Census.

Spelling of the Last Name

Mark Mizzell was the son of William Mizell who was born January 6, 1757. As Mark grew up, his name was written with two z’s, and that spelling stuck with his descendants.

The Mizzell spelling is one variation of the last name, with many descendants today using that version. Mark is the first ancestor that we know to have this variation, and perhaps there are others.

(b. 12/11/1801, d. 2/20/1891)

Generation 6

Married: Letitia R. Paxton on January 27, 1835

Children:
Jackson Mizell (b. 5/13/1836, d. 1919)
James Mizell (b. 9/11/1838, d. 10/05/1842)
Everett Mizell (b. 9/28/1841, d. 4/27/1863) Civil War
Catherine Mizell (b. 1/29/1844, d. 1888)
Martha Mizell (b. 1/29/1844, d. 1936)
Lucy Mizell (b. 11/27/1849, d. 8/07/1938)
William Mizell (b. 6/21/1852, d. 2/12/1930)
Joseph Paxton Mizell (b. 6/21/1852, d. 12/24/1930)
Charlton Mizell (b. 4/04/1858, d. 2/19/1859)
Jessie Mizell (b. 12/20/1859, d. 8/15/1860)

More about JOSHUA EVERETT MIZELL

Born Camden County Georgia 1801

Joshua Everett Mizell is the grandson of Charlton Mizell (see Generation 4, Person #12, b. 1727) and the son of Charlton Mizell (Generation 5, Person #34, b. 1773) and Mary Blount.

Joshua Everett was born in Camden County in southeast Georgia on December 11, 1801. He was the third of eight children born to Charlton and Mary. He grew up on a plantation in a family that owned slaves.

Marriage 1835

Joshua Everett married Letitia R. Paxton on January 27, 1835. Letitia was born October 2, 1815 in Camden Co. Georgia, the daughter of Martha McLeske and Joseph Paxton. When they were married, he was 33 and she was 19.

Joshua and Letitia lived on Bailey branch near the Satilla River, and had a large plantation and a number of slaves. In the 1840s and 1850s, they were prominent citizens in Camden County, Georgia.

Joshua and Letitia had ten children born between 1836 and 1859. Twin girls Catherine and Martha were born in January 1844 and another set of twins, this time boys, William and Joseph, were born in June 1852.

There was certainly sorrow in the family, as the second child James died at age 4, and the ninth (Charlton) and tenth (Jesse) children died before their first birthdays. And their third child Everett, born 1841, died in the Civil War in 1863 at the age of 22.

In 1854, when Charlton County Georgia was formed out of Camden County, Joshua’s plantation was placed in the new county and he was named as one of the original commissioners to help organize the County Government.

Joshua Everett Mizell died February 20, 1891 in his 89th year. His wife Letitia lived to October 26, 1893, dying at the ripe old age of 78. They both were buried in the family cemetery on the original family plantation.

(b. 4/10/1813, d. 11/23/1883)

Generation 6

Married: Martha Newsom 11/28/1848

Children:
James Andrew Mizell (b. 01/01/1850, d. 02/02/1873)
Susan Jane Mizell (b. 5/06/1851, d. unknown)
Ann Elizabeth Mizell (b. 3/23/1853, d. 1932)
Mary Mizell (b. 01/06/1855, d. unknown)

More about MATTHEW MIZELL

Born in Telfair County, Georgia

Matthew Mizell (person #135 in Generation 5) is the son of Griffin Mizell (see Generation 5, Person #48, b. 1767) and Susannah Carter. He was born in Telfair County, Georgia on April 10, 1813, and was the sixth of eight children. He was very committed to his parents, and as they grew older, he continued to live at home and care for them.

Move to Lowdes County Georgia 1846

In the spring of 1846, Matthew Mizell and his parents moved to present Brooks County, then a part of Lowndes County, Georgia. This move took them about 90 miles south to just north of the Georgia – Florida state line.

His brother Jaob Carter Mizell, who was five years older than Matthew, had previously moved to this area. His older sister Elizabeth also made the move with them.

They settled on Jaob’s property three miles south of Quitman, on the Old Madison Road (County Road 245) east of present State Highway 333 leading south to Madison, Florida.

Matthew’s father Griffin died in November 1846, when Matthew was age 33. His mother Susannah died at the end of August 1848.

Marriage November 1848

Sometime during the two years after the move, Matthew met his future bride, Martha Newsom. She was the daughter of Asa Newsom of Lowndes County. She was born June 28, 1818 in Warren County, Georgia. They became engaged, but agreed to wait until after Matthew’s mother died to get married.

After their engagement, Matthew proceeded to build a new home for his bride to be. They were married November 28, 1848, three months after the death of his mother. Matthew was age 35 and Martha was 30 at the time.

Matthew and Martha were blessed with four children, one son and three daughters, born between 1850 and 1855. Their son James Andrew died tragically at age 23 in 1873.

Life after 50

Throughout his life, he was a faithful member of the Methodist Church. His wife Martha continued worshiping in the Baptist Church, and served as a teacher and leader for many years.

Matthew Mizell served in the Civil War. In 1864, at the age of 51, he was drafted into the Georgia militia which served in the battles around Atlanta.

After the Civil War was over, Matthew returned to his home near Quitman and lived there for the rest of his life. Matthew Mizell died at his home near Quitman on November 23, 1883. He was 70 years old at the time of his death.

(b. 1834, d. 06/1894)

Generation 7

Married: Sarah Carline Peden 2/7/1855

Children:
Benjamin Robert Mizell (b. 12/1/1855, d. before 1870)
Mary Susan Mizell (b. 1/25/1857, d. Unk)
Joseph Henry Mizell (b. 8/25/1858, d. Unk)
John Elza Mizell (b. 7/10/1860, d. 10/17/1930)
Martha Janet Mizell (b. 6/2/1862, d. Unk)
Elizabeth Paradine Mizell (b. 5/26/1864, d. Unk)
William Riley Mizell (b. 10/5/1866, d. Unk)
Claudine Tery Mizell (b. 8/26/1868, d. Unk)
Samuel Smithwick Mizell (b. 11/16/1871, d. 8/16/1932)
Laura Bell Mizell (b. 3/28/1878, d. Unk)

More about JOHN RICHARD MIZELL

Born in Smith County, Tennessee

John Richard Mizell (the second) is the grandson of Cader Mizell (see Generation 5, Person #41, b. 1763) and the son of John Richard Mizell (the first), (Person #105, b. 1793). He was born in Smith County, Tennessee in 1834, as the last son and sixth child of John Richard and his first wife Prividen Pruden. [He was the half brother to William Riley Mizell featured last month.]

His mother Prividen died when he was a baby or a young child. His father John Richard remarried soon thereafter to Elizabeth Miller, who raised him. Perhaps John Richard moved with his father and step-mother to Kentucky when he was a teenager (1845 to 1850).

Lived in Barren County Kentucky

He learned carpentry, and was a cabinet-maker. In 1855, at the age of 20, he married Sarah Carline Peden at the home of her father in Barren County Kentucky (near Glasgow). They settled on lands belonging to her family in Sanders Precinct, Barren County, Kentucky and farmed there.

They had ten children born between 1855 and 1878. John and Sarah and their children are recorded in the 1860, 1870 and 1880 federal census living in Sanders Precinct.

During the Civil War, he reportedly did not want to fight on either side and avoided service by hiding out in the “No-Mans Land” of backwoods Kentucky.

Sarah died in 1886, which prompted John to move from Barren County to Salem, Livingston County, Kentucky. This is where his father had lived in the 1850s and died in 1864. John Richard come down with typhoid fever and died there in June 1894.

(b. 7/11/1840, d. 8/01/1934)

Generation 7

Married: Emma A. Thompson 9/06/1866

Children:
Adolphus Gordon Mizell (b. 7/12/1871, d. Unk)
Minnie Mizell (b. 6/22/1874, d. 9/29/1874)

More about WILLIAM RILEY MIZELL

Born in Barren County, Kentucky

William Riley Mizell is the grandson of Cader Mizell (see Generation 5, Person #41, b. 1763) and the son of John Richard Mizell (the first), (Person #105, b. 1793). By all indications, he was born in Barren County, Kentucky on July 11, 1840, as the first son and second child of John Richard and his second wife Elizabeth Miller.

His father had six children (four daughters and two sons) by his first wife Prividen Pruden, who had died around 1835 when they lived in Tennessee. William Riley was to be the second of seven more children by John Richard’s second wife.

Many of these thirteen children have descendants to today, but William Riley was not one of them.

Move to Livingston County Kentucky before 1855

The hills and hollows around Glasgow and Barren County Kentucky supported the family for several years dung the 1840s and early 1850s.

William Riley’s older half brother John Richard (the second) stayed in Barren County and married a Peden girl, whose family already had long lines in Barren County by 1855.

For some reason, John Richard (the first) decided to move his family on to Livingston County Kentucky around 1854. There were other Mizells (second and third cousins) already there. Perhaps is was the building economy associated with river boat traffic on the Ohio River, since Livingston County is just up river from Paducah.

Service in the Civil War

With the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861 William Riley was a young man of age 21 and an uncertain future. Apparently there were sentiments in his family against slavery, and perhaps these led him to cross the Ohio River at Golconda into Illinois and enlist in the Union Army. He served in the 120th Illinois Infantry, Company E, and saw duty at Memphis Tennessee and other points along the Mississippi River during the Civil War.

Return from the Civil War

When the Civil War was over, he returned to Illinois. His father John Richard (the first) had died in Livingston County in 1864, leaving his mother with sons at home aged 19, 17, 15 and 9. The older boys would soon leave home to seek their fortunes, leaving Elizabeth and her youngest son Thomas Arthur Mizell to get by on their own.

William Riley met his bride to be Emma A. Thompson around Golconda, and they were married there on September 6, 1866. He was 26 at the time and she was 23.

Medical School

There was certainly a need for doctors, and William Riley’s interest in the practice of medicine may have stemmed from his Civil War service. He perhaps had contact with other doctors traveling though the area, but learned of medical schools back east and decided to pursue medical training.

He enrolled in the University of Miami Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating there in 1874 at the age of 34. Little is known about how much time it took to get through “medical school” in those days, but medical practice was certainly much more primitive then compared to the 21st Century.

He promptly traveled down the Ohio River back to Illinois, and searched for a place to set up practice.

New Burnside, Johnson County, Illinois

In the early 1870s, the little town of New Burnside, Illinois was on the new railroad line running from Vincennes, Indiana southwest to Cairo, Illinois. While it was a community of only a few hundred people, it was a good stop for steam locomotives to re-supply with water.

In 1874, William Riley Mizell and his wife Emma decided that New Burnside would be a good place to settle. He was the first medical doctor to settle there. In 1875, while digging a water well, coal was discovered near New Burnside. A mine was opened, and coal was used locally for fuel. Quickly there was a demand for coal elsewhere, and coal was loaded on rail cars for shipment to other cities and towns.

People flocked to New Burnside for jobs and work. New Burnside grew to 2,000 people by 1879. In 1880, the coal mine did $35,000 in business. It was a thriving community.

Leading Citizen

William Riley Mizell was a charter member of the New Burnside Baptist Church which was organized May 16, 1875.

He bought about 5 acres in New Burnside and built a house for Emma and their son. His mother, Elizabeth, widowed in 1864 when her much older husband died, came from Kentucky and joined the family to live out her final days in New Burnside (she died in 1881 and is buried in New Burnside).

By 1878, William Riley had bought another 100 acres a couple of miles northwest of town. His youngest brother Thomas Arthur Mizell, born in 1855, came with his mother, and as a young man in his early 20s, learned farming on this 100 acre tract.

Thomas Arthur met his bride in Johnson County, Illinois, they got married in 1879 and William Riley signed as a witness.

William Riley’s half-nephew, John Elza Mizell, born in Kentucky in 1860, and looking for a start in life, came to New Burnside about 1880.

John Elza also met his bride in Johnson County, Illinois and there were married in 1882, with William Riley signing as a witness.

Thomas Arthur was to move to western Kansas in 1882 and have a large family of descendants. John Elza was to stay in Johnson County, Illinois and also have a large family of descendants.

William Riley Mizell was one of the original members of the Masonic Lodge chartered in 1884.

Family Historian

Stories in the family suggest that William Riley Mizell was interested in the Mizell Family Tree.

He reportedly collected information about ancestors, and accumulated considerable information about the early generations.

There has been speculation that perhaps he even traveled to France to learn about family ties there.

A tragic fire at his home in New Burnside in 1934, a few weeks after his death, apparently consumed almost his entire collection of family records.

William Riley Mizell purchased a Bible around 1870 for the price of $3.25, which was used to record births, deaths and marriages for generations to come. That Bible survives to the present day, and many family historians have copies of those pages.

Late in Life

The New Burnside economy did not continue to boom. Better coal was found elsewhere in southern Illinois, and by 1883, the population had dropped to about 1,000 people. In 1907, New Burnside was home to only 400 people.

William Riley and Emma had a son Adolphus Gordon born 1871 and a daughter Minnie born in 1874. Minnie died at the age of 3 months.

Adolphus Gordon Mizell was to attend medical school in Chicago from 1894 to 1897, and settled in Shelbyville, Illinois after graduation. He and his wife Cora never had any children.

This was the end of the line for descendants of William Riley and Emma Mizell.

William Riley Mizell died in New Burnside on August 1, 1934. His wife Emma preceded him in death in 1928. They both are buried in the cemetery at the west edge of town, near the grave of his mother Elizabeth.

The Legacy of Uncle Doc Mizell

For all the other Mizells whose lives had been shaped by this wonderful man, he was known as UNCLE DOC.

The stories about Uncle Doc probably started before 1900 and were still very much alive in the 1970s. With the passing generations, those stories aren’t told as often. If we only knew what Uncle Doc knew about the Mizell family tree that went up in smoke in that fire of 1934!

(b. 5/28/1809, d. 9/12/1897)

Generation 6

Married: Mary Bryan 2/6/1834

Children:
Mary Rebecca Mizell (b. 1/9/1835, d. 1928)
John William Mizell (b. 5/18/1836, d. 1/8/1862)
Susan Elizabeth Mizell (b. 2/15/1838, d. 10/22/1892)
Cornelia Antoinette Mizell (b. 4/16/1840, d. unk)
Charles Love Mizell (b. 10/8/1841, d. 12/6/1869)
Luke Thompson Mizell (b. 1/6/1844, d. after 1927)
Amos Bryan Mizell (b. 9/25/1845, d. 10/2/1929)
Amanda Caroline Mizell (b. 3/8/1848, d. Unk)
Daniel Bullard Mizell (b. 2/14/1851, d. Unk)
Hardy Price Mizell (b. 9/24/1852, d. 1912)
Martha Emma Mizell (b. 9/17/1854, d. Unk)
Wesley Solomon Mizell (b. 2/16/1857, d. Unk)
Fletcher Mizell (b. 10/17/1860, d. 11/15/1860)

More about AMOS LOVE MIZELL

Born in Jones County, Georgia

Amos Love Mizell is the son of William Mizell (see Generation 5, Person #50, b. 1781). He was born in Jones County, Georgia in 1809, as the third son and fourth child of William and his wife Mary Love. He grew up in a large family, as his parents were to eventually have 13 children.

When Amos was 12 (in 1821), Houston County was created from lands acquired from the Creek Indians, to the south of Jones County. In the late 1820s, Amos’s father and mother moved their family, which at that point included eleven children, to Houston County.

Amos met his future wife Mary Bryan in Houston County, and they were married on February 6, 1834 when he was 24 years old and she had just celebrated her 17th birthday.

Move to Alabama and the Indian War

Amos’s father William was a minister in the Methodist church and carried a passion for missionary work among the Indians. Shortly after Amos and Mary were married, perhaps around 1835, Amos and his father moved their families westward into Alabama, settling in Russell County.

They made their homes in the vicinity of Opelika, Alabama according to the local history. From the start, William and Amos developed a high level of trust with the Indians and apparently there was much mutual respect.

A war between the whites and the Indians broke out in 1836. Before it started, the Indians warned William to leave Alabama, and take his family with him. William and Amos, and many other white settlers took their families in wagons back to Georgia. While they could take some of their personal belongings, much of their property was left at their homes.

The whites returned after all danger was passed, and much of their property had been destroyed. But the homes of William and Amos were unharmed. The Indians said that William was a good man, and the Great Spirit would be angry with them if they destroyed anything belonging to him.

Hard times after the Civil War

Amos’s father William died in 1857, and his mother died in 1867. They were buried at the Old Pleasant Hill Church and Cemetery within what became Fort Rucker following World War II.

Amos found life in Alabama to be quite harsh during the Reconstruction Days following the Civil War. He decided to seek a new life further west, and he and his wife Mary moved to Ellis County Texas and settled near a town called Barnwell.

Several of their children, who were now grown and married, made the move to Texas as well.

End of Life

Amos’s wife Mary died in Barnwell Texas at the age of 64 in 1881. Amos lived in Barnwell until his death in 1897 at the age of 88. Amos and Mary are both buried in Barnwell. Many generations of Mizells are descended from them.