Ledyard Mitchell was born in Cincinnati, the sixth child of Richard
Hannaford Mitchell and Maria Lucia Lincoln. Upon graduating from
Yale University in 1904, he joined the family business, the Robert
Mitchell Furniture Company of Cincinnati. In 1917, Ledyard moved
to Detroit to take a position with the Maxwell Motor Corporation,
eventually being appointed to administer the company when it went into
receivership. When the remnants of Maxwell was purchased by
Chrysler, Ledyard was retained as an executive at Chrysler.
Sara Sherman was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the
daughter of Frank Allen Sherman and Ada Louise Bacon. After Ada
died in 1900 and Frank died in 1902, Sara briefly lived with her
grandfather, Hoyt Sherman, the prominent Des Moines banker and
insurance magnate who was a brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman
and Senator John Sherman. Hoyt died in 1904, and Sara went to
live with her aunt, Adaline, and Adaline's husband, Frank Wiborg.
The Wiborgs were living in Cincinnati at the time, where Frank Wiborg
was a prominent businessman. The family later moved to East
Hampton, New York. Sara's life with the Wiborgs was not
particularly happy, being overshadowed by the more glamorous, and more
eccentric, Wiborg daughters, and recording that she was treated as the
'poor country cousin'.
Ledyard and Sara were married at East Hampton
in 1910, residing in Cincinnati until he entered the auto industry in
1917. By the 1950's, the Mitchells maintained homes both in
Grosse Pointe, MI, and East Hampton, NY.
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