The house you see in the first image is 101 Cleveland Street, the final residence of Moses P. Mitchell, who purchased the house in 1891 after having lived in Melrose for over twenty years. Like his neighbor around the corner, Wesley Furlong, Mitchell was a Black Civil War veteran. He had served in the 5th Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry, the only Black cavalry unit from Massachusetts, and fought honorably at the Siege of Petersburg.
In the second image, taken from findagrave.com, you see his headstone at Wyoming Cemetery, which reads “MEM Co. H MASS. VOL. CAV. COMRADE AT REST.” Mitchell was a stonemason by profession, and Melrose town records tell us that he had been paid to whitewash gravestones at the cemetery, so in this stone we may be looking at some of Mitchell’s own handiwork.
The third image is a newspaper account of Mitchell’s role at the 1884 Democratic Party District Convention. At least twice, in 1882 and 1884, Mitchell was elected to serve as the Democratic Party district member for the town of Melrose. This was highly unusual, not only because Mitchell was a Black man taking a political leadership role in a town that was over 99% white, but because in the late 19th century the Republican Party commanded the adherence of almost all Black Americans. Mitchell’s loyalty to the Democratic Party marked him as a true political nonconformist. In this account, we see his oratory winning applause from a room in which he was probably the only Black man present.
In the 1880s, Mitchell’s rise in the ranks of his party might have caused some to wonder if more Black political leaders would emerge in Melrose. In the 124 years since Mitchell died in 1897, no Black person has ever been elected to office here.
#blackhistorymonth #melrosema
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