Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Mix came by wagon to north central Idaho as a child with his family of twelve in 1883.
[3][6] Mix was the first student at the University of Idaho in Moscow in October 1892, starting at its prep school as a teenager.
[11][12] Mix ran for governor in 1936, but lost a close three-way race in an eight-man Democratic primary, won by Barzilla Clark.
[21][22][23][24] Gainford W. Mix (1911–2000) earned a degree in agriculture from the UI and ran the family farm after his father's death.
[26][28] Mix died in 1944 in Moscow at age 67 at Gritman Hospital, after a paralytic stroke;[29] he and his wife are buried at the city cemetery.