J.F. Mitchim
Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri
Biographies of Scott County, 1888
J.F. Mitchim, editor and proprietor of the Benton Record, was born in Mount Vernon, Ill., in 1865, and is a son of Lawson S. and Catherine (Fronaberger) Mitchim, natives of North Carolina and Pennsylvania, respectively. After their marriage the parents located in Mount Vernon, Ill., from whence they came to Southeast Missouri in 1865 and located in Jackson. In 1878 they removed to Ripley County, Mo., in which county the subject of this sketch learned the printer's trade in the Current River News office. The father died on his farm near Doniphan, Mo., on January 24, 1879 aged forty-six years. To him and wife were born eight children, viz: William (editor of the Sikeston Star), Charles (of Benton, Mo.), J.F., Connie (wife of W.C. Hancock of Ripley County), Ollie, Alice (deceased), Bennie (deceased), and an infant unnamed, also deceased. The mother, an active, energetic lady, is keeping house for the subject of this sketch. She is a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. When sixteen years of age J.F. Mitchim established the Doniphan Daisy, a monthly society sheet which he published for one year, and in 1884 he established the Sikeston Star, in Sikeston, Scott County, and in 1886 he bought the Express-Record, and changed the name to the Benton Record, and a few months later in the same year he purchased the Benton Free Press and closed its doors. He established a paper at Jacksonport, Ark., called Jacksonport Democrat, which he afterward sold to J.H. Page, one of his employees. He established the Doniphan Bee in December, 1887, soon selling the same to the "Bee Publishing Company" of that place. Mr. Mitchim was instrumental in founding the Bonne Terre Critic, of Bonne Tere, Mo., with John LaChance, editor. He purchased the Puxico Express in May 1888, and in June 1888 he purchased a half interest in the Cape Girardeau News, with L.R. Johnson, and changed the name to the New Democratic Era, making it a Fourteenth Congressional Democratic District organ. Mr. Mitchim is now proprietor of four weekly Democratic journals in Southeast Missouri. On the 17th of June, 1888, Mr. Mitchim completed a fourteen-mile telephone line between Commerce, on the Mississippi River, and Oran, on the Iron Mountain Railroad, by the way of Benton, the county seat of Scott County, thereby connecting these towns with the outside world by wire. Although Mr. Mitchim began early in life with no means, by industry, perseverance and close application of the business tact which he possessed, he has been very successful in life thus far, and is today one of the brightest and most promising young men of Southeast Missouri.
Submitted by Connie Perkins
Poster-#-157-
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