Henry Herbert Mitchell, born in 1872, was the son of Arobine and William Mitchell. William Mitchell was said to have been a private secretary to Jay Gould in his youth. Bert lived in Madison County his entire life, with the exception of four years when he attended Shattuck Military Academy in Minnesota. Bert gradually assumed management of his father's ranch near Ennis, Montana. Bert also maintained several businesses in Bozeman, Montana. In 1907 Bert married Katherine (Kate) Sullivan from O'Neill, Nebraska. Kate had come to Montana to teach school. Bert and Kate had no children, except for a son who passed away at his birth in 1909. Bert died on January 2, 1941, after which Kate ran the ranch with the help of her twin sister, Josephine (Jo) Sullivan, who moved to the ranch after Bert's death. The sisters operated the ranch until it was purchased circa 1951 by Ralph Paugh. Kate moved to Butte where she died in 1965.
The H. H. Mitchell family papers consist of five financial record and minute books: two ledgers, two cash journals, and one collection of minutes. The books were maintained by Henry Herbert (Bert) Mitchell and his wife, Katherine. Book 1 is a cash journal of transactions and investments of Bert's businesses conducted in Bozeman between January 14, 1895 and September 5, 1895. The businesses include: a general jobbing business, begun January 14, 1895; a grocery business, begun on January 28, 1895; a wood and coal business, begun February 1, 1895; a wholesale and retail flour business, begun March 4, 1895. Book 2 is divided between a cash journal of Bert's businesses conducted between March 20, 1895 and March 28, 1895, and of ranch business conducted between January 1, 1895 and August 2, 1897. Book 3 is a business ledger covering the year 1895, for the Bozeman businesses, which also includes a loose receipt for nails purchased from the Odell Ditch Company, dated May 5, 1918. Book 4 is a business ledger for the Mitchell's Ennis Ranch covering 1896, kept in pen by Bert, and 1941 through 1951, kept in pencil by his widow Kate. Book 5 includes the minutes of seven meetings from March 12, 1908 through July 1, 1911 of the Madison Valley Percheron Horse Company, of which Bert was the secretary.
This collection is open for research.
Family financial papers created or collected by the H. H. Mitchell family were donated to Special Collections by Ralph Paugh of Ennis, Montana in 1965.
This collection was processed 2007 August 22