Tuolumne
County
Biographies
FRANK A. MITCHLER
Frank A. Mitchler, one of central
California’s esteemed hotel proprietors, has conducted the Mitchler Hotel at
Murphy’s for eighteen years and during the interval has borne an unassailable
reputation as a businessman, never making an engagement which he has not kept,
nor contracting an obligation that he has not met. His sagacity and enterprise and moreover his
untiring labor have brought to him a handsome competence, and the most envious
could not grudge him his success, so honorably has it been acquired. He is yet a young man and the unwritten
chapters of his life history will doubtless contain an account of added
prosperity.
Mr. Mitchler was born in Murphy’s on
the 8th of November, 1863, and is a son of George Mitchler, who was
a native of Germany. During his
childhood the father accompanied his parents on their immigration to Boston,
Massachusetts, where he was educated and learned the trade of the
cabinetmaker. In 1851 he came to
California, crossing the Isthmus to take passage on Pacific waters and thereby
reached the Golden Gate. In 1852 he
arrived at Murphy’s where like other pioneers, he followed mining, but during
much of the time he engaged in house-building and erected many of the leading
residences and substantial structures of the city, including the Catholic
Church at Murphy’s. On many sites may be
seen the evidences of his handiwork. He
also conducted a boarding house in the early mining days. In 1866 he removed temporarily to Mariposa
County, where he was left in charge of a hotel, and while acting in that
capacity he was shot and almost instantly killed by a drunken man with whom he
had had trouble. Thus Calaveras County
lost one of her most enterprising and industrious citizens. The murderer was sentenced and sent to the
state prison, but afterward was pardoned and finally committed suicide near the
place where he had taken a good man’s life and bereft the little family of
husband, father and protector. Mr.
Mitchler had married in 1857 Miss Elizabeth Cline of Germany, becoming his
wife. They had three children, all of
whom are living: C. P.; Lena, now the
wife of G. H. Scantleburry; and Frank A. All reside in Murphy’s and are numbered among
the most respected citizens of the place.
The mother departed this life in 1893, at the age of sixty years. She had been a faithful wife, a loving and
tender mother and had well cared for her children after the father’s
death. He was a member of the Masonic
fraternity and in politics was a Democrat, but at the time of the Civil War
became an earnest advocate of the Union.
Frank Alexander Mitchler was only
three years of age at the time of his father’s death. He was educated in his native town and in
early life accepted the position of clerk in the hotel of which he is now the
proprietor. In 1882 he purchased this
hotel in connection with his brother, the partnership between them being
maintained for some time, when our subject purchased his brother’s interest and
has since been the sole proprietor. He
has able conducted the house for the past eighteen years, and it is regarded as
one of the cleanest and best-kept hotels in the state, having a wide reputation
for the efficiency of the help there employed and for the neatness and comfort
that characterizes the establishment. Mr. Mitchler’s
sister acts as the housekeeper, and their joint efforts have made the hotel a
favorite resort of the traveling public.
The building is a fire-proof stone structure, is lighted with
electricity and contains twenty-five sleeping rooms. It is nicely furnished throughout and at one
end of the house is a beautiful and well-kept lawn adorned with flower gardens,
indicative of the refined taste of Mr. Mitchler and his sister. The subject of this review also conducts a
livery stable in connection with the hotel, it being under the care of a
partner. He is also one of the owners of
the Ozark gravel mine four miles distant from the town. It has been thoroughly prospected and proves
to be a very valuable property.
In his political affiliations Mr.
Mitchler is a Republican and keeps well informed on the issues of the day, and
as every true American citizen should do, feels a deep interest in all that
pertains to the success of the principles in which he believes. Socially he is a member of Ophir Lodge, No.
33, F. & A. M. His business has
brought to him a wide acquaintance, and the sterling qualities of the man, his
upright character, genial disposition and unfailing courtesy have secured for
him the warm regard of all with whom he has been associated.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 569-571. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.