19151 Elisha Mitchell, D. D. 163 



On the 14tli June, 1858, at the request of many of his 

 friends the body was exhumed and reburied on the highest peak 

 of the Black Mountains on the 16th of the same month. A 

 sermon was delivered by the Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, a 

 graduate and Tutor of the University in 1820-'21, Rev. James 

 Hervey Otey, D. D. After him President D. L. Swain made a 

 "Vindication of the propriety of giving the name of Mitchell to 

 the Peak." Both sermon and address were repeated in Asheville 

 two days afterwards. 



For years the grave was marked by a cairn of stones 

 gathered in its neighborhood. The title of the acre of land 

 around it was vested in the University of ISTorth Carolina. On 

 August 18, 1888 by means of a bequest of the youngest daughter 

 of Dr. Mitchell, Mrs. Eliza K'orth, widow of Richard S. Grant, 

 supplemented by minor donations, the present monument of 

 white bronze was erected on the summit. It is universally re- 

 gretted that within a few weeks this monument was blown down 

 and ruined by a tornado. 



The trail to the summit, including ten miles, was in such 

 condition that it required the labor of fourteen men thirty nine 

 days to make it passable. The sections of the monument were 

 transported on men's shoulders, the whole weighing about nine 

 hundred pounds. The base is formed of two blocks of gneiss 

 bedded together with Portland cement. The work was accom- 

 plished at the request of the University Faculty by the un- 

 parallelled energy and labor of Dr. Wm. B. Phillips, once Pro- 

 fessor of Alining an dMetallurgy in the University of North 

 Carolina, now Professor of Geology in the University of Texas. 



I have given my opinion of Dr. Mitchell as a preacher and 

 teacher. As a man, in social life and as a citizen, he had con- 

 spicuous virtues. He was charitable in deed and in speech. He 

 seldom spoke harshly of anyone, even under provocation. His 

 advice and his purse were open to the humblest. His acts of 

 charity, very frequent, were known only from the recipients. 

 In his controversies, he refrained from angry words and at- 

 tacking motives. Notwithstanding his superiority in learning 

 there was no ostentation. Although he preferred to be alone 



