121:[[Robert Patterson (engineer)|R. C. Patterson, who was in charge of completing the final section of the OTL, recruited Mitchell as an overseer and surveyor. Mitchell reflected on his work on the OTL in a letter to the editor in December 1872, where he describes himself as the Chief Officer of the Central Section of the Line.
135:
In
January 1874, Mitchell was appointed as a surveyor First Class in the Colony of South Australia. In February 1876, he was appointed a licensed surveyor in New South Wales and began to advertise his services in the local newspapers. He was given a bonus in 1873 of £100/ while working on the central
66:
In March 1882, Mitchell married his third wife, Charlotte Jane
Whiteman, daughter of a local Judge, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The 1900 US census records that Mitchell and his wife are living in Colorado. He give his date of birth as 1856, shaving a decade off his actual age. He and Charlotte later
50:
On 1 August 1877, Mitchell married
Christina Cameron. In October 1877, accounts appeared in the newspapers that Mitchell had deserted his first wife, Anne, and eloped with Christina. He was charged with bigamy by the NSW Police and was described as "31 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, slender
90:
surveying part of Port Darwin and
Palmerston. Goyder, who was the Surveyor General for South Australia, had hired six other senior surveyors - including Mitchell - to run small independent work groups. These groups included a cadet, a chainman, and a cook, among others. Mitchell was in charge of
46:
In
January 1867, Mitchell married Anne Sloper Cornish. Together they had five children - three daughters and two sons. Mitchell appears to have left Anne in 1877, and in 1891 Anne married Darwin-based merchant Edwin Luxton (though she did not relocate from Adelaide). Anne died in 1940.
42:
in
October 1846, and was baptised in December of that year. His parents were Alexander Mitchell and Emma Maslen. His father was linen draper who died the same year he was born. His mother remarried and emigrated to Adelaide, Australia with her new husband when Alex was a teenager.
54:
Christina later gave birth to a daughter, Camille May
Josephine Mitchell (1878–1961), who would go on to have a successful career as a singer. In 1877, Christina married Charles Thomas Richards, and moved to Queensland after Richard's death. She died there in 1945.
144:
In the late 1870s, Mitchell moved to the United States and secured work, first as a surveyor, then as a mining engineer in
Colorado and Arizona. He is recorded as having mining claims in Arizona in 1878 and 1879, and was involved in creating topological maps of
51:
build, fair complexion, brown hair, brown beard, whiskers, and a moustache tinged with red, blue eyes, one front tooth artificial; an
Englishman; a surveyor." One newspaper account suggests that Mitchell and Cameron had fled Australia for the United States.
441:
58:
It is unclear whether both
Christina and Mitchell did in fact go to the United States, but Mitchell appears to be working mining claims in 1878 in Arizona. In 1882, he is listed on the Voter Registration roll in
863:
95:
168:
Mitchell died in Los Angeles in 1926. His obituary makes reference to his role in the development of Australia's Overland Telegraph Line. He is buried, alongside Charlotte, in the
118:(OTL). Stretching from Adelaide in the far south to the newly established town of Port Darwin in the far north, it was the longest such system to be built anywhere in the world.
132:, J. A. G. Little, and Patterson, he is photographed leaning against a supply wagon in a work camp just near Frew Ponds where the line was connected in August 1872.
91:
Party No. 1 and his team included his brother-in-law, William Henry Cornish (1849–1888). In February 1869, Mitchell submitted a report on land near Palmerston.
63:, where he was working as a surveyor. According to other government documents, including the US census records, Mitchell emigrated to the US in the 1880s.
67:
moved to Los Angeles, and by 1910 had two servants - a Japanese cooked named Shigitashi Suzuki and a Louisiana-born housemaid, Harriet S. Johnson.
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22:(October 1846 – 1926) was a British born surveyor, mining engineer and businessman who played a critical role in the development of
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Mitchell is credited with surveying more than 970 acres, which amounted to almost a quarter of all the land surveyed by
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23:
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169:
242:
129:
111:
241:
Carment, David; Edward, Christine; James, Barbara; Maynard, Robyn; Powell, Alan; Wilson, Helen J (2008).
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Mitchell was working as a surveyor in South Australia in the late 1860s. It is unclear where he trained.
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Mitchell was an active member of the local sailing community and owned several racing yachts.
153:
466:"Hon. William H. Whiteman Biography-Coshocton County Ohio - Presented by Genealogy Trails"
391:
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in Los Angeles. Records related to his mine holdings are in the Yale University archives.
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634:
An end to silence: the building of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin
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661:(Sesquicentenary (1872-2002) ed.). Rapid Creek, Northern Territory: Derek Pugh.
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490:"San Pedro Daily News 26 August 1907 — California Digital Newspaper Collection"
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The Tombstone Stagecoach Lines, 1878–1903: A Study in Frontier Transportation
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From 1893 to 1895, Mitchell was involved in the establishment of the town of
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From 1870 to 1872, the colony of South Australia, under the instruction of
865:
The Overland Telegraph Line “Joining Point” Frew Ponds, Northern Territory
38:
Alexander James Mitchell (also known as A. J. Mitchell) was born in
156:
in Colorado. In the 1900s, he was involved in businesses importing
244:
Northern Territory Dictionary of Biography - Revised Edition
114:, built a cross-continental telegraph line, knowns as the
684:
Overland telegraph: an epic feat of endurance and courage
935:"Materials relating to Marble City, Colorado, 1893-1895"
98:. In acknowledgement of his contributions, the suburb
250:. Charles Darwin University Press. pp. 364–365.
515:The Surveyors: The Story of the Founding of Darwin
82:Role in the Northern Australian surveying parties
921:Crystal River saga: Lore of the Colorado Rockies
585:The Moonta Herald and Northern Territory Gazette
659:Twenty to the mile: the Overland Telegraph Line
442:"Arizona, U.S., Voter Registrations, 1866-1955"
533:The South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail
392:"Madame Camille Cornwell – Van Cooten Voices"
8:
686:. London: Angus & Robertson Publishers.
124:Mitchell also appears in one of the iconic
366:"The Southern Colonies. A Runaway Husband"
16:Surveyor and mining engineer (1846–1926)
181:
790:The New South Wales Government Gazette
607:"Return of Northern Territory Surveys"
96:Goyder's Northern Territory expedition
883:"JABA, Inc. Tombstone Mining Records"
7:
220:Northern Territory Times and Gazette
128:photographs from the OTL. Alongside
106:Role in the Overland Telegraph Line
888:. Arizona Geological Survey. 2006.
28:Australian Overland Telegraph Line
14:
708:"The Telegraph Completion Party"
346:. 12 September 1877. p. 296
939:LUX: Yale Collections Discovery
792:. 15 February 1876. p. 642
535:. 12 December 1868. p. 10
513:Goyder Kerr, Margaret (1971).
422:. 20 September 1945. p. 4
344:New South Wales Police Gazette
294:. 21 September 1877. p. 8
1:
842:The South Australian Register
740:. 28 December 1872. p. 4
712:The South Australian Register
587:. 24 February 1869. p. 1
559:The South Australian Register
34:Personal life and controversy
908:. The University of Arizona.
871:. Engineers Australia. 2012.
766:. 31 January 1874. p. 5
372:. 10 October 1877. p. 2
222:. 6 November 1891. p. 2
899:Peterson, Thomas H (1968).
844:. 2 January 1873. p. 2
714:. 4 January 1872. p. 5
320:. 4 October 1877. p. 2
268:. 21 March 1940. p. 16
196:. 3 January 1867. p. 2
986:
818:. 11 April 1876. p. 6
26:and the completion of the
919:Francis, Theresa (1959).
816:The Sydney Morning Herald
613:. 22 July 1870. p. 3
292:The Sydney Morning Herald
194:South Australian Register
170:Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery
86:In 1868, Mitchell joined
734:"The Overland Telegraph"
561:. 28 May 1888. p. 2
20:Alexander James Mitchell
140:A new career in America
116:Overland Telegraph Line
88:George Woodroffe Goyder
632:Taylor, Peter (1980).
581:"Mr Mitchell's Report"
266:The Adelaide Chronicle
764:The Adelaide Observer
738:The Adelaide Observer
682:Clune, Frank (1984).
136:section of the line.
786:"Licensed Surveyors"
657:Pugh, Derek (2022).
370:Rockhampton Bulletin
102:is named after him.
636:. Sydney: Methuen.
611:The Evening Journal
470:genealogytrails.com
529:"News of the Week"
318:Kilmore Free Press
147:Tombstone, Arizona
61:Tombstone, Arizona
40:Wiltshire, England
693:978-0-207-14715-9
668:978-0-6481421-9-5
643:978-0-454-00241-6
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848:26 September
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838:"Telegraphy"
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970:1926 deaths
965:1846 births
158:Yule Marble
959:Categories
944:2024-09-25
555:"Obituary"
499:2024-09-25
475:2024-09-25
451:2024-09-25
401:2024-09-25
176:References
30:in 1872.
517:. Rigby.
396:vc.id.au
340:"Bigamy"
100:Mitchell
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154:Marble
74:Career
24:Darwin
906:(PDF)
886:(PDF)
869:(PDF)
248:(PDF)
164:Death
850:2024
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