MITCHELL, the county seat [Mitchell County, Iowa], is situated on the east bank of the Red Cedar River, and includes East and West Mitchell. It is fifty miles from Waverly, the present terminus of the Cedar Valley Railroad. It has five or six hundred inhabitants, and is surrounded by farming lands, unsurpassed for richness and fertility, and contains a splendid stone Court House, a large three story flouring mill and saw mill, run by water, a steam saw mill, two fine school houses, six stores, two hotels, a cabinet manufactory, two harness makers, two wagon shops, two cooper shops, one tin shop, three shoemaker shops, four doctors, two lawyers and three ministers, to wit: Methodist, Congregational and Baptist. The Mitchell Press is published weekly by T. M. Atherton. The village possesses every natural advantage for manufactories, of almost every description, as the Cedar at this place affords one of the best water-powers in the State. (Hair's Iowa State Gazetteer..., 1865)