William Riley Mizell

(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!