Later, around 1855, Elizabeth Welch married Benjamin Franklin Mixon, who was a Methodist. She lost him during the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864, in the Civil War. A few days before she received the message Franklin had died, she said to her mother-in-law, "Frank is dead." Rebecca Mixon asked how could she know Frank was dead. Elizabeth said, "I saw him in a dream."

Goodspeed says Caleb Welch enlisted in the Civil War, was discharged of disability, then commissioned to look after families of soldiers. He was the son of James Welch, cousin to Elizabeth Welch Mixon, and Judy Welch Knight. It is possible he had some influence in starting the orphanage in Lauderdale. Both Elizabeth and Judy had their children in the orphanage at Lauderdale after their husbands were killed during the Civil War in Georgia, until they could do for themselves, and their children did receive a good education.

It is said Elizabeth Mixon was in charge of the dining-room of a boarding house which belonged to Mr. Porter. Later she went back to Perry County as the boys would not stay at the orphanage and would go back to where they had lived, but by then belonged to Mr. Denham. She helped at the Denham home awhile, and then helped a Mr. Lewis with his boarding house.

On July 22, 1875, Elizabeth Mixon entered land: NE¼ NE¼ Sec 9 and W1/2 NW; Sec 10 T3N R11W 160 acres. Mr. Hugh McCallum put up the money for the application for the homestead, and when it was approved and time to get a patent, he lent money for that too. Then when Elizabeth Mixon had clear title to her land, she paid Mr. McCallum with timber from her land. It is said Mr. McCallum helped May families this way, yet died penniless.

To get a patent, the land had to be improved. Elizabeth Mixon was forty-eight years old when she entered land to homestead it. With the help of her sons, a log house was built, a barn, crib, and several acres of land cleared to be farmed. This had to be done within five years in order to apply for the patent. The patent describing her land and stating she had proven her right to the claim, was signed by the President of the United States. Then she received the deeds from the state from the Chancery Clerk of Perry County.

Elizabeth Mixon"s first house was a log house. It had one large room, then a small room in back and a front porch. It had a kitchen built to one side separate from the house with a walk to connect it to the house. It had a brick chimney and a wooden floor and shuttered windows. No glass for the windows.

Ben Stevens, brother to William Stevens, had a sawmill on Reece's Creek. Elizabeth Mixon cooked for Stevens' sawmill hands and boarded one occasionally. This Ben Stevens was grandfather of the merchant Ben Stevens at Richton, and the lawyer Ben Stevens at Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

John Ira Mixon, Elizabeth's eldest son, bought a sawmill at Augusta (Old Augusta). When he acquired enough money, he built a new house for his mother. It had two big rooms, glass windows, four in each room. It had a kitchen attached, but entered from an ell-shaped back porch. There was a front porch, a stairway to an attic, with a closet under the stairway. Aunt Martha Jane Welch lived with her sister, Elizabeth. They shared the smaller room and John slept in the living-room when home. The house burned from the kitchen flue about 1890 before it had been completed. The Benjamin Franklin Mixon Family Bible was lost in the fire, and many other things.

Later, John Mixon moved his sawmill to his mother's property and built a six-room house with front porch, large hall, back porch which continued from hall to pantry off kitchen. Wood for fires was stacked against the pantry at the end of the back porch, especially for the kitchen stove.

Elizabeth lived with Mary and John Bertrand at Hattiesburg until John Mixon finished the last house. She lived with John Mixon in the new house until he married in September 1895, then with John and Mary Bertrand until she died of measles and pneumonia, May 9, 1896. Age, sixty-nine years, one month, and twenty-one days. All the children must have loved her, but it is said John Bertrand had the highest regard for Elizabeth Mixon, and nothing he had was too good for her. Elizabeth Welch Mixon is buried on the land she homesteaded which is near land homesteaded by her son, Henry Harrison Mixon.

John Ira Mixon, eldest child of Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Welch Mixon, was born May 7, 1856. He was eight years old when his father died in the Civil War. At the orphanage, John was found to be mechanically inclined, so was taught to operate machinery in the shop. Also given a basic education.

Henry Harrison Mixon and his wife lived at Augusta, and Henry worked as a mechanic in the sawmill run by steam which John Mixon operated.

John Mixon was a marshal or deputy marshal at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at one time. He married Miss Fannie McLaughlin on September 12, 1895, and lived in the six-room house he built on his mother's land.

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