Architectural Refinement on the Ohio Frontier: The Randall Mitchell House

A paper to be presented by Joseph E.B. Snider, Perry County, Ohio, archaeologist and historian:

For far too long, early Ohio has been seen as a desolate landscape, void of refinement, whose only characters were poor farmers who spent all their time and effort fighting off Indians and cutting firewood. Sites like the Randolph Mitchell House force us to reevaluate this narrative, and more closely examine Ohio’s early frontier of settlement. Randolph Mitchell, who migrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, and settled in Perry County, Ohio, in 1819, completed construction of his stately Federal-style “I” House in 1828. Mitchell brought with him the high ideals of the east, and here in Ohio, these ideas were adapted to meet the needs of an uncertain frontier. For over a year now, the house has been the subject of intensive investigation in an effort to better understand both its initial construction and subsequent alteration. A clearer comprehension of the history behind the Randolph Mitchell House, and those who called it home, has led to a better understanding of early 19^th-century Ohio settlement and the socioeconomic environment within which early settlers operated.