Description
“Well Known Negro Dies” Joshua Mitchell of Platte City, who was known to most everyone in the community as “Uncle Josh,” died Tuesday, March 30, 1937. He had been in failing health for some time. Uncle Josh was one of those old time Negroes, for whom a certain friendly feeling has always existed among both Negroes and Whites. He was widely known and until the last 3 years was sought as a reliable workman by many. Our people too well knew Josh Mitchell for us to praise him or here tell of his one besetting appetite. He was a life-long Democrat. He minded his own affairs, was polite and unobtruding. Along this line we recall his oft-used phrase, “I cut my own ice.” Josh Mitchell was born of a slave mother belonging to James W. Christy, on what is now known as the Brack George farm, one mile south of Platte City, August 15, 1850. He told the writer that his birth spot was a plot of bushes near the cabin home - but why the outdoors memory fails to now recall. At the old Gaylord college, on March 21, 1871. a white minister united in marriage Phyllis Campbell and Joshua Mitchell. “Aunt Phyllis,” as she was generally known, died December 29, 1922. There left one son, Fred Mitchell and one daughter, Anna Lucas; also 2 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren. The funeral was held Thursday afternoon. For many, many years Josh Mitchell and his family lived in a small log cabin, a reminder of the pioneer homes, probably the first building in Platte City, still humble in the shadow of more modern homes and within a stone’s throw of a modern institution of learning. Like Uncle Josh and many others of the old time Negroes and Whites, this cabin too is destined before many more years to pass and give room for the more modern edifices, that a less hardier and more exacting people demand.Date(s) of Creation
4/2/1937
