INTRODUCTION OF WILLIAM L. MITCHELL

Guest Post by Matthew G. Sadowski

December 29, 1879, in Nice, France, William l. Mitchell was born into the wealthy and powerful railroad, banking and political Mitchell family of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Willie was raised on the sprawling John L. Mitchell and Harriet Danforth Becker Mitchell 240 acre estate of Meadowmere; an eastern portion of the current City of West Allis with the former family home now being part of the Mitchell Manor Senior Living Community.

 

Willie enjoyed the freedom that such a large estate could afford an energetic and inquisitive young boy of a family with immense wealth and privilege. Among his many interests, Willie occupied his time with activities such as hunting, fishing, raising chickens and horses and collecting bird specimens. Willie took these interests with him when, in the winter of 1890, after testing into the second form, Willie’s formal education began at the then-prestigious Racine College in Racine, Wisconsin. In addition to having respectable grades and usually perfect school conduct, Willie had an insatiable appetite for learning, exploring, fun and games, and like other classmates, a little bit of mischief.

 

Willie attended Racine College from January 1890 to June of 1895. During free times in barracks like dormitories, Willie was prolific at writing letters mainly to his mother, but later also to his father, then a US Representative and Senator. In his letters he reported on his many interests, activities, observations, and desires. Many of his activities were ordinary, but some were extraordinary.  While at Racine College Willie sang for a U.S. president, had discussions with a Civil War general, and walked with a captain of industry.

 

Willie could be very demanding in his letters, and very detail oriented, two traits he would carry into his highly decorated yet controversial career in the U.S. Army. However, in communicating with his mother and father Willie would always close his letters, no matter how demanding or frantic, using the words “love,” “respectfully,” or “truly”. It is unclear if such warmth was always conveyed in his written military salutations.

 

TWITTER HANDLE

As he grew older Willie came to be referred to as Billy, thus the Twitter handle being used for this reenactment will be WillieBillyM.

A Civil War Nurse

Guest Post by Julia Olsen

Kate Davis is a representation of nurses during the Civil War. She was born January 13^th, 1816, making her 45 when the Civil War first began. Kate was originally born in Maryland and migrated to Milwaukee after getting married. She spent most of her days as a housewife to her husband. She was caring but also stern and would not let any funny business slide. Her husband worked as a part of the wheat shipping industry in Milwaukee. She also had two sons who were following in her husband's footsteps in this industry. After the onset of the war, her husband and two sons volunteered to join to serve their country after a strong sense of patriotism. They enlisted with the 24th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, which started into service on August 21st. This was the same regiment that John L. Mitchell was placed into. Their departure left Kate with very little to do around the house, so instead of sitting around she decided to do something after hearing in June of 1861 that nurses were allowed to volunteer. She didn’t actually start volunteering until September 1862. She was stationed at a general Union hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee where she cared for soldiers who had been wounded, comforted patients, fed patients, managed patients, cleaning, and more. She was faced with hardships she had never experienced before. She worked twelve to eighteen hour shifts. The soldiers treated the female nurses badly and wouldn’t take her seriously, so she was always having to prove herself. She also had to face death as she heard stories from the soldiers, soldiers dying in the hospital, and even received a letter that her youngest son died. She was faced with all of this but still stayed the strong, brave woman she was coming into this. She knew what she signed up for. Once the war was over she did not acclimate well back into being a housewife. She saw that women should have a say and can contribute to the workforce. She became an advocate for women's rights.

Follow Kate Davis on Twitter at @KDcivilwarnurse

Railman Franz Lugviel

Guest post by Tekla Kilpatrick

A railman

@RAILMANMKE Franz Lugviel is the railman for our reenactment. He is a German immigrant who came to the States in 1848 as a child and lived in the Killbourn neighborhood. During this time period we see his father work on plank roads and then as Franz Lugviel grows up, he works on the railroad. During their time in Milwaukee the Lugviels were impacted by the Alexander and George Smith’s banks and money. Since banking is illegal, they censor the word bank in their tweets with a bee emoji and “ank”. This account also highlights the expansion of the railroad by new incorporated companies and the connections to different towns and cities. This character highlights some particularly German experiences including Franz Lugviel having a job as a teenager with a German newspaper, visiting Turner Hall, and trading spaetzle with others on the rail line.

John Lendrum Mitchell: a George Bailey-esque character.

Guest Post by Henry Stull

The character I chose to portray in the Twitter reenactment is John Lendrum Mitchell, son of banking and rail mogul Alexander Mitchell and father of famous pilot Billy Mitchell, an early pioneer of the U.S. Air Force. Despite being the only child to survive past infancy, John Mitchell spent much of his youth far away from home. After graduating military school in Connecticut, his parents sent him to Europe to further his studies. He returned from Europe at the twilight of the Civil War, enlisting as a second lieutenant. After being discharged due to bad eyesight John finally returned to Milwaukee, operating a farm in the area. It was there on the farm where the middle Mitchell began his foray into local politics, his tendency to generously donate large sums of his family's fortune no doubt aided these efforts. Eventually John Mitchell set his sights to Washington, being first elected to the House of Representatives and then to the Senate, where he was an outspoken advocate against the American imperialism of the 1890s. Even among his peers in the Senate, John Mitchell was considered to be highly educated and remarkably intelligent; his diverse array of knowledge allowed him to heavily weigh in on a number of different laws, such as the filled cheese bill.

John Lendrum Mitchell reminds me of a George Bailey-esque character. A key event in John’s life where the quality of his character shines through is when, during a run on the bank he inherited, he protected the savings of his depositors by reimbursing them with money from his own pocket. Obviously, there is a scene like this in It’s a Wonderful Life, but like in the movie it really shows off a conflict in the character between wanting to live the good, adventurous life and following the honed point of his moral compass. The generosity of John contrasts with the stiff-lipped nature of his father and is probably a result of the two vastly different experiences each man had in life.

Find John Lendrum Mitchell on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JMeechMKE.

Margaret Kennedy “Betsy” Ross Caswell

Guest Post by Cameron Neubauer

Margaret Ross Lansdowne

My chosen Twitter character is Margaret Kennedy “Betsy” Ross Caswell. She connects to the Mitchell family as Zachary Lansdowne’s widow. During Billy Mitchell’s life, he was controversially liked and disliked. In general, the US War Department was opposed to Billy’s ideas about aviation and actively ignored him. In contrast, the public opinion tended to side more with Billy and his ideas. Lansdowne was known for agreeing with most of Bill’s stances on the War Department and especially aviation. Lansdowne died in the Shenandoah disaster after expressing concern about the safety of the trip. This resulted in Margaret speaking out to the public against the US War Department and serving as witness in Billy Mitchell’s court martial.

For this reenactment of the Mitchell family history, with historical imagination, I am going to use this character to attempt to portray the public’s opinion of Bill during the timeline with a focus on events pertaining to the late 1800s to early 1900s. I will be able to use historical events that have happened surrounding Billy’s life using the class bibliography in chronological order. My tweets will be reactions to these current events but will also portray a few historical events happening broadly in America and around the world, including but not limited to the Spanish American war, World War I, Women’s Suffrage movement, trendy advertisements, popular entertainment, common hardships, etc. For my profile, my handle is @MrsLansdowne_ since she was most commonly known as Zachary Lansdowne’s widow. I also found a picture of her for the profile picture.

William Mitchell as an Adult

 Guest Post by Lori Martello

William “Willie/Billy” Mitchell is a perfect character to be represented in this Twitter reenactment, for his widely documented characteristics and vital importance in air power, the First World War, and Milwaukee history provide substantial materials to foster the historical imagination. Mitchell was a member of the Milwaukee Mitchell family and rose to prominence not in finance or railways like his father and grandfather before him but in the military. Mitchell was a fighting man both in physicality and spiritually; his voluntary enlistment in the Spanish-American War with the First Wisconsin Infantry was his first military experience, and throughout his lifetime, his on-the-ground and in-the-air experience as a soldier contributed to his outspoken attitudes, commentary, and eventually criticisms of military events but also in his defense of soldiers and the protection of them.

It was in the First World War that he became a hero; when the United States entered the war, Mitchell was sent to France to oversee the American Expeditionary Forces, and he used his knowledge and passion for flight and air power which led to a strategic victory at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in April 1918. Mitchell, in charge of all American aviation, coordinated a British, Italian, and French air fleet that aided the American ground forces. An aspect that made Mitchell a rising star and then an eventual nuisance to the military was his passion for air power and continual research and documentation of how useful the establishment of an air force would be to the United States military. Mitchell spent time in Alaska, Cuba, and the Philippines, establishing a knowledge that the environment of future wars and the success of those wars would depend on air superiority. Mitchell promoted the various ways airships could be used, such as for antisubmarine missions. In the interwar periods and during his honeymoon, he spent time constructing documentation that predicted the attack on Pearl Harbor twelve years prior to the event. His contentions with the military over this topic, mostly the lackadaisical speed at which the military encouraged the production of air power, intensified when the Navy began building airships. Mitchell, an experienced airman, spent his whole military career and life researching how to establish an air force that would dictate the success of future wars, and yet his expertise was not consulted, which seemingly would be due to his aggressive manners in the War Department.

The crash of the USS Shenandoah, a Navy-created helium-based airship, in September of 1925 was the event which led to the eventual court martial of Mitchell. Mitchell took to the press to condemn the Navy for its “neglect” and inexperience that led to the death of fourteen crew members. After his court martial, Mitchell spent the rest of his life lecturing and writing on the supremacy of air power and the absolute need for an air force and continued his perspectives on the threat that was Japan. Mitchell died in 1936, just two years before the start of the Second World War wherein air power was the culmination of fighting and eleven years before the establishment of the United States Air Force.

Interested in more? Want to learn about Billy Mitchell during his childhood? Follow the Twitter handle @BillyMinthesky and the hashtag #MitchellsMKE!

 

George Smith and Alexander Mitchell

Guest Post by Nicholas Lee 

For the History 450 Twitter reenactment, I will be portraying George Smith, @ChiMoneyGeorge, and Alexander Mitchell, @AMitchCurling, two Scottish financiers who played a significant role in the development of the Wisconsin territorial and later state economy. 

George Smith

The first of these men, George Smith, travelled from Aberdeen to the American Midwest in 1835. Recognizing the need for ready capital in the wake of Andrew Jackson’s war on banking, Smith returned home and used his credentials as a successful land speculator to recruit Scottish investors and form the Wisconsin Marine and Fire Insurance Company (WM&F) in 1839. Although banking was technically illegal in the Wisconsin Territory at this time, Smith’s charter enabled the new company to receive and loan money and granted them additional bank-like privileges.

 

George Smith remained home after gathering his investors, sending the young Alexander Mitchell to operate as the company’s secretary and man on the ground. Mitchell was a farmer’s boy who had little formal education beyond the parish school yet travelled to Aberdeen in his teens to study law. There he sufficiently distinguished himself that Smith and his fellow investors felt comfortable sending the 22-year-old Mitchell to be their primary agent in their new venture. 

Alexander Mitchell

Known for his beautiful penmanship, Mitchell was known to be brief in words, which some attributed to a desire to cover his Scottish country brogue. He quickly established a reputation for honesty and efficiency. Despite being an insurance-man in name, Mitchell’s primary responsibility was to circulate the WM&F’s certificates of deposits. Legally barred from circulating currency, the WM&F got around this by issuing certificates of deposit redeemable for specific dollar increments. Thanks to George Smith’s fundraising, the WM&F had a large reserve of coin, or specie, which was necessary for land transactions and considered more reliable than the paper money issued by various territorial and private banks. As Mitchell demonstrated the WM&F’s consistent ability to issue specie in exchange for the company’s certificates of deposit, “George Smith’s money,” which looked and handled much like actual banknotes, became the de facto currency of the Wisconsin territory. This was so much the case, that in 1846 when the territorial government became suspicious that Smith’s and Mitchell’s activities amounted to illegal banking, they were so dependent on the WM&F economically that the company was allowed to recharter as a bank, several years before banking was officially made legal in Wisconsin. While Smith was content to remain in London and collect his millions, Alexander Mitchell invested the wealth earned in his “insurance operation” into a variety of business concerns, becoming the foremost railway operator and the richest man in Wisconsin by the 1860 census. He was also the progenitor of Milwaukee’s Mitchell family, father to the U.S. senator John, and grandfather to Billy, the controversial Army general and oft-considered father of the United States Air Force.