US Congressman, Lawyer. He was a United States Representative from the State of Massachusetts. He was born as John Joseph Mitchell one of six children to Edward E. Mitchell (1853-1895), and his wife Bridget McKeon Mitchell (1855 -1913), on a farm in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on May 9, 1873. While growing up he worked on the family farm and drove a milk wagon to make money for his future education. He was educated locally in the common public schools before attending the prestigious Boston College in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Albany Law School in Albany, New York. His father passed away while he was still a senior in college and was forced to take a job at the Marlborough Public Library in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and another job as an assistant to a newspaper writer at a local publication, in order to help support his widowed mother. He was then admitted to the bar in 1901 and commenced his practice of law in his native Marlborough, Massachusetts. He then took an interest in politics and was elected and served as a Member of the Massachusetts State House of Representatives representing the Twenty-First Middlesex District from 1903 to 1906, and as a Member of the Massachusetts State Senate from 1907 to 1908. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected to fill the seat caused by the vacancy due to the death of United States Representative Charles Quincy Tirrell (1844-1910), on July 31, 1910. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Massachusett's 4th District (Sixty-First Congress), in the United States House of Representatives serving from November 8, 1910, to March 3, 1911. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection to represent the Sixty-Second Congress in 1910. He lost a simultaneous election to represent the Sixty-Second United States Congress, and therefore only served until the completion of the open term. After his term in the United State Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative William Henry Wilder (1855-1913), on March 4, 1911. Following his term in the United States Congress he resumed his practice of law for a time. He then decided to run for another seat in the United States Congress and was elected to succeed the outgoing United States Representative John Wingate Weeks (1860-1926), following his resignation which caused a vacancy. A Member of the Democratic Party, he then served Massachusett's 13th District (Sixty-Third Congress), in the United States House of Representatives from April 15, 1913, to March 3, 1915. He was an unsuccessful Candidate for reelection to serve the 12th Districts and 13th Districts (Sixty-Fourth Congress), in the United States House of Representatives in 1912 and 1914. After his second term in the United States Congress, he was succeeded in office by the incoming United States Representative William Henry Carter (1864-1955), on March 4, 1915. Following his second term in the United States Congress he was nominated by the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), for the position of United States Marshal for the State of Massachusetts of which he served beginning on April 1, 1915. While serving in the position of United States Marshal it was his responsibility to handle enemy aliens in Boston, Massachusetts, during World War I. His work received praise from all quarters for its efficiency, tact, and human basis. Not more than 150 Germans in Boston, Massachusetts, lost their jobs because of World War I according to an estimate of that time and he quickly gained employment. The United States Congressman said of his experiences in August of 1917, "Boston, has a sizable German population yet out of the large number only two were interned as a measure of public safety. Both were cleared, however, and the state is clean.There were many busy days here in the office while the Germans were being registered. But, what pleased me was the attitude they showed. Instead of a surly, disgruntled lot of men acting as if they were being registered, they came pleasantly and willingly and took the registration in the best of humor." During this time, he also served as an Appointed Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Massachusetts for one year and resumed his practice of law, having been associated with William H. Henchy (1884-1968), a former Mayor of Woburn, Massachusetts, in the same law offices. He was then nominated for a seat in the United States Senate on March 9, 1920, and then took office, serving in that position from April 1, 1920, until he resigned from office in 1921. After his term in the United States Senate, he resumed his practice of law in Boston, Massachusetts, until his death on September 13, 1925. He passed away following a month-long illness related to nervous exhaustion at his home in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, on September 13, 1925, at the age of 52. Following his death, flags were flown at full half staff at Marlborough City Hall in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and his funeral service was held at Immaculate Conception Church in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and he was then buried in Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Marlborough, Massachusetts. He never married nor had any children.