Thomas Mitchell, born in New Hampshire in 1816, came to Iowa Territory in 1840 and in 1844 became the first white settler of Polk County. He built cabins and later inns to feed and shelter the hundreds of people going west, defended American Indians, and during the Civil War hid runaway slaves. In 1856 he founded Mitchellville and donated land for its wide streets, city park, and cemetery. He later gave land and money for a seminary for young women so they could receive advanced education, and he also provided the land and money for the Universalist Church. Believing that education and religion had a calming influence on the frontier, he encouraged all denominations to meet there until their own buildings could be built. He was the first sheriff of Polk County, served six years as Polk County Commissioner, was elected to the General Assembly in 1875 and to the Iowa Senate in 1878. So respected and loved was Mitchell that when he died in 1894, a special train came from Des Moines and 1,000 people attended his funeral; he was buried in the cemetery he had given to the town.