Ill-Fated Haiti

Found Photo Project #10

By Eilene Lyon

This photo is another case of “How on earth did this wind up in southwestern Colorado?” The young man pictured was born in Maine, and educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard. Eugene Usher Mitchell was the tenth of eleven children born to Maine farmer Charles Mitchell and Ruth Wentworth. Charles and Ruth were both born in Kennebunk, Maine. A couple years before their marriage, Charles purchased a farm in Newfield.

Eugene was born in Newfield on February 14, 1851. At that time, of his older siblings, one brother had died as an infant. Five brothers and three sisters (including a pair of twins) still lived at home on the farm. One brother later died of smallpox (1859) and another was killed during the Civil War.

After the war, Eugene attended Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, one of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest boarding schools. He excelled at his studies and sports. Though a soft-spoken lad, he had intimate friends who found that “his genial and appreciative nature, his clear perception, his fund of anecdote, and his quiet humor added to their pleasure.” He enjoyed taking long walks to nearby towns. He graduated from the Academy in 1870, which is the date on this photograph. Eugene was then 19 years old.

At Harvard, where he graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Arts degree, Eugene belonged to the Institute of 1770 (now called The Hasty Pudding–Institute of 1770), and the Pi Eta Society (a literary and thespian group founded in 1866, no longer in existence).

Eugene taught mathematics at De Veaux College, a school for underprivileged, and fatherless boys. Run by the Episcopal Diocese as a military institute in Niagara Falls, New York, the tiny school closed in 1971. After two years there, Eugene returned to Maine to teach and served as a high school principal. Tiring of the underpaid profession, he changed tack dramatically and, unfortunately, with sad result.

Eugene’s older brother, Francis W. Mitchell (1834–1899), lived in Haiti at Miragoâne, a major port on the western coast of the island. He worked as a U.S. Consul agent and businessman. Eugene moved to Haiti to work with Francis in the summer of 1880.

After about a year, Eugene arranged to return home for a visit. He came down with a sudden, serious illness and died on August 29, 1881, before he could make his journey. Just 30 years old, Eugene had not married or had children. He is buried in a family plot in the Maplewood Cemetery in Parsonfield, York County, Maine.

Sources:

Obituary for Eugene Usher Mitchell, (undated, unknown author), Mitchell family archives.

Ayers, Ruth B. Early Families of Newfield, Maine (Gorham, Maine: Penobscot Press, 1995), rough draft excerpt of the Mitchell family, Mitchell family archives.

Shourie, Rajath, “Pi Eta Club Goes Dormant After Sordid History,” The Harvard Crimson, November 6, 1992 (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1992/11/6/pi-eta-club-goes-dormant-after/ : accessed November 29, 2024).

“De Veaux College”; Lost Colleges (https://www.lostcolleges.com/de-veaux-college : accessed November 29, 2024).

“Miragoâne”; Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirago%C3%A2ne : accessed November 29, 2024).

“Phillips Exeter Academy”; Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_Exeter_Academy : accessed November 29, 2024).

“Hasty Pudding Club”; Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_Pudding_Club : accessed November 29, 2024).

“Eugene Usher Mitchell”; Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/154477699/person/352061764458/facts : accessed November 29, 2024)