He also served as president of the state senate, did the initial legal work involved in the dispute that led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Pennoyer v. Neff, and later was involved with the Oregon land fraud scandal, for which he was indicted and convicted while a sitting U.S.

[1][2] He was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, with the name John Mitchell Hipple.

However, in 1860, he decided to leave his community and family, and moved to California with a local schoolteacher with whom he was having an affair.

Mitchell was not an intellectual man, but he was very ambitious and knew how to develop business and political friendships with important people.

In 1867, he was hired as a professor at Willamette University School of Medicine to teach medical jurisprudence.

In one case, he acted as a guardian on behalf of a widow, wherein he moved to sell some of her land to supposedly pay for the expenses of the guardianship, turned around and bought the land himself at a cheap price and then resold it at market value for a sizeable profit.

[3] During his law practice in Oregon, Mitchell did some legal work for a client named Marcus Neff.

Mitchell was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States Senate from Oregon in 1866, losing to Henry W. Corbett.

Mitchell characteristically escaped further investigation by bribing the Attorney General at the time, George Henry Williams.

[9] An appeal of the conviction was under way and the Senate was beginning proceedings to expel him when Mitchell died of an illness in Portland, Oregon.

[12] His eldest daughter, Margaret Mitchell Griffin, died at age 41 in New York City, from shock following a surgical procedure.

[13][14] His daughter, Jennie M. Mitchell, married Jacob P. Fawcett, mayor of Mount Union, Ohio (later Alliance), and judge.