John Purroy Mitchel (1879 - 1918)

Born 19 Jul 1879 in Fordham, Bronx, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Jul 1918 at age 38 in Lake Charles, Calcasieu, Louisiana, United States

Preceded by
Ardolph Loges Kline

95th Mayor of New York City
1914-1917

Succeeded by
John Francis Hylan

Biography

John Mitchel is Notable.

John Mitchel has Irish ancestors.

John Purroy Mitchel was the 95th mayor of New York, from 1914 to 1917. Mitchel is remembered for his short career as leader of reform politics in New York as well as for his early death as a US Army Air Service officer in the last months of World War I.

John Purroy Mitchel was born on July 19, 1879 at Fordham, Bronx, New York City to James Mitchel, a New York City fire marshal, and Mary Purroy .

He married Olive Child.

At the age of 34, Mitchel was elected mayor of New York City on the Republican Party slate defeating Democratic candidate Edward E. McCall by 121,000 votes, thus becoming the second youngest mayor of New York City. He was often referred to as "The Boy Mayor of New York."

Mitchel joined the Air Service as a flying cadet, completing training in San Diego and obtaining the rank of major. On the morning of July 6, 1918, when returning from a short military training flight to Gerstner Field, near Lake Charles, Louisiana, his plane suddenly went into a nose dive, causing Mitchel to fall from his plane due to an unfastened seatbelt. Mitchel plummeted 500 feet to his death, his body landing in a marsh about a half mile south of the field.

Mitchel Field on Long Island was named for him in 1918.

• Fact: Burial Woodlawn Cemetery and Conservancy , Bronx, Bronx County, New York, USA

Sources

• John Purroy Mitchel (1879-1918) on Find A Grave: Memorial #6029896 retrieved 17 November 2018
• John Purroy Mitchel (Wikipedia)