John Purroy Mitchel - Life and Career

Life and Career

Purroy was born in New York City to James Mitchel, one of three brothers to fight for the Confederacy and the only to survive the War, despite multiple injuries including the loss of his arm.

Purroy graduated from secondary school at Fordham Preparatory School in the late 1890s. He obtained his bachelors degree from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1899 and graduated from New York Law School in 1901. His short career witnessed a turning point in New York State politics, in which the Democratic Party increasingly returned to positions of power after a long period of Republican dominance in many jurisdictions since the career of Grover Cleveland. Mitchel's success occurred as an older generation of Democrats, men like John Franklin Kinney, were returning to the private sector, having been eclipsed by Theodore Roosevelt and the progressive Republicans.

He rose to prominence just five years later, for leading the investigation of Manhattan Borough President John F. Ahern and Bronx Borough President Louis Haffin. Both of the Borough Presidents were ejected from their posts as a result of a full investigation, including the murder of a Manhattan gambler named Herman Rosenthal, allegedly on the orders of New York Police Lieutenant Charles Becker resulting in the controversial impeachment of William Sulzer, the Governor of New York State, after Sulzer fell out with Tammany boss Charles Francis Murphy. The young Purroy Mitchel's reputation as a reformer garnered him the support of the anti-Tammany forces. In 1909, Mitchel was elected President of the Board of Alderman (an organization similar to the current City Council).

Four years later, at the age of 34, Mitchel was elected Mayor on the Fusion (Party) slate, an alliance of Republicans with Jewish and Protestant reformers. His progressive, reform agenda included appointing Henry Bruère Chamberlain of the City, with powers to investigate corruption and recommend reforms. Purroy Mitchel fell out with much of the Catholic hierarchy over positions in favor of ecumenism and his criticisms of the certain bishops' favoritism in municipal politics, although Mitchel was a devout Catholic and had his own Jesuit chaplain.

Mitchel's administration introduced widespread reforms, particularly in the Police Department, which had long been highly corrupt and which was cleaned up by Mitchel's Police Commissioner Arthur Wood. Mitchel's early popularity was soon dented, however, when Tammany Hall attacked a series of planned educational reforms, suggesting that they would make it impossible for poor Catholic children to receive a free education.

Mitchel advocated universal military training to prepare for war. In a speech at Princeton University on March 1, 1917, he described universal military training as "the truly democratic solution to the problem of preparedness on land."

Mitchel ran again for Mayor in the highly-charged wartime election of 1917. He narrowly lost the Republican primary to William Bennett after a contentious recount, but ran for re-election as a pro-war Fusion candidate against Bennett, the anti-war Socialist Morris Hillquit and the Tammany Hall Democrat John F. Hylan, who won the election without taking a clear position on the War. (Mitchel barely beat Hillquit for second place.)

After failing to get re-elected, Mitchel joined the Air Service as a flying cadet and completed pilot training at Rockwell Field in San Diego. Commissioned a major in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, he was sent to Gerstner Field, a flying training airfield near Lake Charles, Louisiana, for advanced single-seat training. He died thirteen days short of his thirty-ninth birthday in a training accident on July 6, 1918. Mitchel fell out of his aircraft at 500 feet and plummeted to the ground, dying instantly. It was thought that he had forgotten to fasten his seat belt.