William Thomas Mitchell was born in the town of Middlebury, Genesee (now Wyoming) county, New York, May 27, 1817. His father, Hon. Wm. Mitchell, had just emigrated to that place from Vermont, and was one of the early pioneers of Western New York, then mostly a wilderness. He attained high and honorable distinction, and became one of the leading men of that part of the state and left to his son, the subject of this sketch, the heritage of a good and honored name.

Brother Wm. T. Mitchell, through a long and useful life, has not dimmed the fair heritage left him by his honored sire. His education during his early years, was largely under his father's instruction. He received a good classical preparatory education, but by reason of poor

health was obliged to abandon his cherished ambition of college graduation. He was employed for two or three years as clerk in a store, and then entered upon the study of the law, first with his father, then with the firm of Putnam and Hugh, in Attica, New York. After three years application, as then required by New York laws and rules of the courts, he was admitted to the bar as an attorney and received his first diploma from the hands of his father, the presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and was soon afterward admitted to the Supreme Court of that state.

At the age of twenty-two he was married to Adeline A. Peck, of Attica, and with his young wife removed to Lapeer, in this state, in October, 1839. In November, 1839, he was admitted to all the courts in Michigan. The Circuit Court, Court of Chancery and the Supreme Court, as then organized, requiring separate examinations and admissions. Diplomas from other states not being passports to the bar of Michigan. In 1840 he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney pro-tem and conducted many prosecutions, with creditable energy and ability for one so young and without previous experience in the higher courts.

He was editor of the Lapeer Plain Dealer, the first democratic paper in that county, in 1840, and in the fall of that year was elected Register of Deeds for Lapeer county, an office worth $250 or $300 per year. This lucrative office he was compelled to resign the next year, as he had become a victim to fever and ague, and returned to New York and remained for a year in the practice of his profession, when with health restored he again returned to Michigan, settling in Romeo and forming a partnership with H. W. Williams, his brother-in-law, resumed the practice of his profession. In these days three dollars was considered a high charge for a days services for country lawyers, and even these small fees and the small cases accompanying them were not abundant. He was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of Macomb county by Gov. Barry, but resigned before his term expired and removed to Port Huron, where he has since resided.

In 1869 he was elected Circuit Judge on the democratic ticket, his district being strongly republican. The circuit was large, embracing four counties, the duties arduous and the salary light, and after three years service he resigned to again enter upon the practice of his chosen profession, and endeavor to regain the practice he had lost by taking