John Purroy Mitchel | |
---|---|
95th Mayor of New York City | |
In office January 1, 1914 – December 31, 1917 | |
Preceded by | Ardolph Loges Kline |
Succeeded by | John Francis Hylan |
Personal details | |
Born | New York City, U.S. | July 19, 1879
Died | July 6, 1918 Lake Charles, Louisiana, U.S. | (aged 38)
Resting place | Woodlawn Cemetery |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse |
Olive Child (m. 1909) |
Parent(s) | James Mitchel Mary Purroy |
Alma mater | Columbia University New York Law School |
Occupation | Attorney |
John Purroy Mitchel (July 19, 1879 – July 6, 1918) was the 95th mayor of New York, in office from 1914 to 1917.[1][2] At 34, he was the second-youngest mayor of the city, and was sometimes referred to as the "Boy Mayor of New York". Mitchel won the 1913 mayoral election in a landslide, but lost the Republican primary in 1917 and came in second place in the general election as an Independent. He is remembered for his short career as leader of anti-Tammany Hall reform politics in New York, as well as for his early death as an Army Air Service officer during a training flight in Louisiana amid World War I.[1]
Mitchel was praised by reformists in New York. Journalist Oswald Garrison Villard, the editor of The Nation, called him "the ablest and best Mayor New York ever had."[3] Former President Theodore Roosevelt, endorsing Mitchel's re-election bid in 1917, stated that he had "given us as nearly an ideal administration of the New York City government as I have seen in my lifetime."[3] However, he is generally held to have been ineffective as a politician.[4][5]
Mitchel's staunchly Catholic New York family had been founded by his paternal grandfather and namesake, John Mitchel, an Ulster Presbyterian Young Irelander who became a renowned writer and leader in the Irish nationalist movement, as well as a staunch supporter of the Confederacy.
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