Family background
Michael David Minchel, known as David Mitchell, was born in 1825 at Jarocin Prussia, son of Falk and Mina Minchel. He arrived at Sydney in 1851 and married Julia Davis in 1854 at the Synagogue, Macquarie Street, Sydney. Sixteen children of the marriage were born between 1854 and 1877. He died at London on 13 February 1892, aged 66 years. Julia Mitchell died at London on 8 June 1906.
Occupation & interests
Mitchell worked as a Pitt Street watchmaker and jeweller in the 1850s, and after a period as a Queensland publican acquired from Josiah Harpur a wholesale grocery at 426 George Street Sydney about 1868. He established D Mitchell & Co which moved from York Street to 153 Clarence Street. The business was described as wholesale grocers, general merchants, manufacturers of groceries and eastern goods. He left an estate valued at 91,915 pounds for probate purposes.
Community activity
David Mitchell’s wholesale grocery in the city and land speculation brought him considerable wealth. He rented Lynwood in Glebe from 1870, became a magistrate (1878), and a Justice of the Peace. He purchased Kayuga, built in 1857, at 92 Pyrmont Bridge Road in 1876 and changed its name to Jarocin, and built the three-storey Mitchell Terrace in 1879 at 84-90 Pyrmont Bridge Road. Mitchell was a founding member of Glebe Masonic Lodge in 1881. On 29 March 1888 David and Julia Mitchell with five daughters and two sons emigrated to England.
Local government service
David Mitchell was an alderman on Glebe council in 1884-87. He chaired a public meeting at Glebe Town Hall in January 1882 regarding delay in extension of tram lines to Glebe, and then he joined a delegation of local citizens to the Minister for Works to urge a speedy completion of the tramway. The Glebe tramway became operational from August 1882.
References
Sydney Morning Herald, 25 January 1882, p. 3
Sydney Morning Herald, 9 February 1884, p. 3
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 1888, p. 9
Sydney Morning Herald, 17 February 1892, p. 1