The Children of William and Lydia Coleman Mitchell

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 23, 2024

From time to time, I have mentioned, most if not all, of the children of William Mitchell and Lydia Coleman Mitchell. However, I have not listed them and their accomplishments all together. While brief, I thought this would be nice to help highlight Maria Mitchell’s siblings.


Andrew Mitchell (1814 – 1871) A sailor who ran off to sea at sixteen, served in the US Navy during the Civil War, became a farmer, and worked at one point with his youngest brother, Henry, in some of his U.S. Coast Survey work.


Sally Mitchell Barney (1816 – 1876) An excellent celestial navigator who assisted her father with his surveying of Nantucket that was printed as a map in 1838. Sally was also a teacher.


Maria Mitchell (1818 – 1889) America’s first woman astronomer, a founder of the Association for the Advancement of Woman, the first female professor of astronomy in the U.S. at Vassar College. First American awarded a gold medal from the King of Denmark for her discovery of a telescopic comet in 1847.


Anne Mitchell Macy (1820 – 1900) A teacher of languages at the Coffin School on Winter Street – she was called the “Mistress of Seven Foreign Tongues” – and a member of the Association for the Advancement of Woman.


Francis “Frank” Mitchell (1823 – 1891) Frank would move the farthest from Nantucket and his family. He and his wife, Ellen, settled in Chicago where they established a produce commission firm.


William Forster “Forster” Mitchell (1825 – 1892) An abolitionist and educator, Forster would serve as Haverford College Superintendent, supervisor and teacher in the Freedmen’s Aid Commission, and founding faculty member at Howard College (now University) where he taught tinsmithing in the Industrial Arts Department – a craft he learned from his uncle, Peleg Mitchell Jr.


Phebe Mitchell Kendall (1828 – 1907) An artist, Phebe opened a small art school on Nantucket, and travelled with her sister, Maria, to observe and paint two solar eclipses. Like her sisters, she was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Woman and she was the first woman to serve on the Cambridge, MA School Board.


Eliza Mitchell (1830 – 1833) The twin of Henry, she died at age 3.


Henry Mitchell (1830 – 1902) A US Coast Survey hydrographer, and a teacher at MIT, Henry was a founder of the National Geographic Society and participated in the design and construction of the Suez Canal.


Eliza Katherine “Kate” Mitchell Dame (1833 – 1907) The youngest and named after her deceased sister, Kate would move to Lynn, MA where many of the Mitchell family members would live or spend lengths of time – all gathered around their father, William, who had moved there with Maria in 1861. Kate’s home became the center of the Mitchell family constellation.


JNLF

Recent Posts

The Ancient Vine

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 11, 2026
A repost – with my apologies – from last year. It started budding the week of April 30 this year. This is what our landscaper for the MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House that is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters once I plant them – try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 4, 2026
May 6, 1878 Between the clouds, Miss Spalding obtained 7 photographs of Mercury on the Sun. It is comfort to me to be able to plan and do a new kind of work. The large telescope worked better than usual, Clark having just been to the Observatory. Clark, as in Alvan Clark, a man who would become the premier telescope maker in America and who built Maria Mitchell’s 5-inch Alvan Clark refractor that she purchased from him (after working with him to build it per her specifications) with money gifted to her from “The Women of America” led by Elizabeth Peabody. More than likely, it is this telescope she is referring to as she did use it in the Vassar College Observatory with her students – and it is also taking center stage in photographs, along with her (first her father’s) Dolland telescope.  Maria had decided she would photograph the Sun on every clear day, and this was one of those results. She would use these images, with her students, to study sun spots and their changes. With her students, Maria would photograph the transit of Mercury as noted above. She would also photograph the transit of Venus a few years later with her students. JNLF

Spring Has Sprung!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • April 27, 2026
And with it, some of the heirloom daffodils I purchased for the Mitchell House last fall. A place was recommended to me by two longtime friends of the MMA and gardeners extraordinaire. It is called Old House Gardens. I ordered a small amount as we now have a plethora of voles on Vestal Street – I believe I complained about them here last year. They won’t eat daffodils so I got a few of “Butter and Eggs” (1777) and “Conspicuus” (1869) as either of these could have appeared in William Mitchell’s gardens. They were not listed in a letter from John Quincy Adams that I have mentioned before. But, Adams was not here visiting the Mitchell family when the daffodils would have been in bloom. The one pictured here is “Butter and Eggs” not completely unfurled. JNLF
Show More