John MITCHELL

• Individual Picture Notes
  • John & Ellen Mitchell's Grave

• General Notes
  • Robert (John's Dad) leased his property to his son John. Of his family, John remained at Kotupna, while Robert continued his teaching career, although he did own some land in the Goulbourn River, which he leased to Kotupna farmers.
    
    John (Jackie) was then 27 years old. He married Ellen Amor, daughter of a neighbouring farmer, William Amor, at the Kotupna Methodist Church on 21/03/1881. Like the Cornish grandfather after whom he was named, John worked in the shoemaking trade until he accompanied his father to Kotupna and commenced farming on the selection.
    By 1888 he had purchased a further 161 acres at Nerrina, Gippsland and during the following years took over the leases of adjacent original selections of Henry Armbrust (Allotment 97, Kotupna) and James Kingham (Allotments 93a, Kotupna and 8 & 9, Section V, Narioka).
    
    In 1900 he secured the freehold of these blocks, together with his fathers original selection and in 1904 purchased the adjoining selection (Allotment 93) originally taken out by Thomas Tuckett.
    John and Ellen had eight childres, Elizabeth (Mrs Ernest Lambourn), William Robert Quick (m Sarah Lenon), John Francis (m Bessie Doncon), Ellen died at 7 weeks, Rebecca (Mrs Dave Coram), Henry George (m Bessie Crawford), Martha (Mrs Ray Kemp) and Fredrick James Hogarth, the youngest, born in 1900, who married Nina Kinsey.
    
    John continued buying land in the Kotupna and Echuca districts gradually deploying his interests from cultivation to grazing. He retired to Boundary Road in Echuca, around the year 1919, but still maintained a keen interest in his properties. On one such visit to Kotupna in his Dodge Tourer, he drove over the end of a fallen limb. It flew up into the car, stricking him on the head and knocking him unconscious for a shirt while. Fortunately his passenger grabbed the wheel and stopped the car from careering off the road.
    
    Apart from his many business interests he was n active member of the Echuca Club until his death in 1933. His wife Ellen, died the following year and are both are buried in the Echuca Cemetary.
    
    John's four sons became farmers - John (Jack) and Henry (George) moved out of the district to Wharparilla, Fred transferred his interests to the Echuca area in the 1920's, while Bob's property is still in Mitchell hands.
    
    Source - Pioneers of Nathalia and district - Compiled by Nathalia Genealogical Group, 1 January, 2000
    

Details of John's family with Ellen AMOR