Dr. James L. Mitchell, a prominent physician of Lauderdale County, is located
at Dry Hill, in the northern part of the county, and was born in Davidson
County, thirteen miles west of Nashville September 15, 1829, and was the
oldest of seven children. His father, Zachariah Mitchell, was born in Middle
Tennessee in 1805, and was raised in Davidson County, where he married, in
1828, Minerva Davis, a daughter of Seth Davis, a farmer. In 1836 he moved to
West Tennessee and located near Hall’s Station, where he died in 1871. Our
subject’s mother was born in Davidson County in 1810, and died near Hall’s
Station November, 1870. Dr. Mitchell was raised on a farm and received a
common school education. He read medicine under Drs. Richardson & McGaughey,
and then graduated from the medical department of the Nashville University
after the session of 1856-57, and has since been a most successful
practitioner. During the past few years he has given some attention to
farming and has also been merchandising since November, 1883. February 2,
1852, he was married to Miss C. B. Dunavant, a daughter of Leonard Dunavant, a
farmer. Two sons, Alonzo H. and James Buford, were born to this union. The
mother was born in Middle Tennessee in March 1828, and died November 12, 1875,
and Dr. Mitchell was married again in the same county, October 2, 1877, to
Mrs. M. J. Parker, a daughter of Lemuel R. Mullens, a farmer, and formerly of
Virginia. Dr. Mitchell was formerly an old line Whig, but is now a Democrat,
and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, his wife being a
member of the Christian Church. He owns a good farm of 160 acres nine miles
north of Ripley, on the Ripley and Dyersburg road. Dr. Mitchell is regarded
as a skillful physician and a true gentleman.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN