One of the chief industrial up builders of Rock Island, a man who, as president of two of the City’s manufactories, has proven his ability both as an organizer and an executive, is Frank Mixter. He was born November 7, 1853, at Rock Island, his father being George Mixter, a sketch of whose life appears upon another, page. His mother was Susan Elizabeth (Gilbert) Mixter. The genealogical record of both the Mixter and the Gilbert families appears in the sketch of our subject’s father, George Mixter.
Frank Mister’s early education was obtained in the public schools of his native City, and after graduating from the High School he entered the University of Heidelberg, at Heidelberg, Germany, for a year. With the exception of that one year at Heidelberg, Mr. Mixter has made his home continuously in Rock Island to the present time.
On April 5, 1877, he was married at Southport, Connecticut, to Miss Elizabeth Bradley, Southport being her birthplace and home. Her forbears were the old Colonial family of Bradleys and Sherwoods, and she is now Regent of Fort Armstrong Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mixter, a daughter, Florence Louisa, now the-wife of Frederick Brown Wells, whose birthplace and early home was also Southport, Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Wells now live at Mount Vernon, New York. A son, William Bradley Mixter, graduated at Yale Scientific School in 1905 with the Degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and from the Yale College with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts. He is now in the employ of the Westinghouse Electrical Company at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Mixter has been, and is, a successful business man. He is president of the Rock Island Stove Company, and also of the Rock Island Buggy Company. He is also a director in the Rock Island Plow Company. It is to the Rock Island Stove Company, however, that Mr. Mixter devotes the most of his time, an industry that is constantly growing and whose output is distributed throughout a large territory. He is a consistent member of Broadway Presbyterian Church, the church at which his father was an attendant throughout his life.
In politics Mr. Mixter is a Republican, although he has never been an aspirant for political favors.
Mr. Mixter is a member of such an old Rock Island family, and is so well known throughout Rock Island County that any laudatory words would be superfluous. Quiet and unostentatious in manner, in no way egotistic, he has always been known to stand for what were the best interests of the City that is his home. He is a good citizen and a good man, and when that can be truthfully said of any individual it leaves little else unsaid.
